 Chapter 5 of Raleigh This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information ought to volunteer. Please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lim Thompson. Raleigh by Edmund Goss. Chapter 5. The defeat of the Spanish Armada had inflicted a wound upon the prestige of Spain, which was terrible, but by no means beyond remedy. In the eight years which had elapsed since 1588, Spain had been gradually recovering her forces, and endangering the political existence of Protestant Europe more and more. Again and again the irresolution of Elizabeth had been called upon to complete the work of repression, to crush the snake that had been scotched, to strike a blow in Spanish waters from which Spain never would recover. In 1587 and in 1589 schemes for a naval expedition of this kind had been brought before council and rejected. In 1596 Charles Lord Howard of Effingham, with the support of Cecil, forced the government to consent to fit out an armament for the attack of Cadiz. The Queen, however, was scarcely to be persuaded that the expenditure required for this purpose could be spared from the Treasury. On April 9th levies of men were ordered from all parts of England, and on the 10th these levies were countermanded, so that the messengers sent on Friday from the Lords to Raleigh's deputies in the West were pursued on Saturday by other messengers with contrary orders. The change of purpose, however, was itself promptly altered, and the original policy reverted to. The Earl of Essex was joined in commission with the Lord Admiral Howard, and as a council of war to act with these personages were named Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard. The Dutch were to contribute a fleet to act with England. It is an interesting fact that now for the first time the experience and naval skill of Raleigh received their full recognition. From the very first he was treated with the highest consideration. Howard wrote to Cecil on April the 16th, and Essex on the 28th used exactly the same words. Quote, I pray you, hasten away, Sir Walter Raleigh." End quote. They fretted to be gone, and Raleigh was not to be found. Malignant spirits were not wanting to accuse him of design in his absence of a wish to prove himself indispensable. But fortunately we possess his letters, and we see that he was well and appropriately occupied. In the previous November he had sent in to the Lords of the Council a very interesting report on the defences of Cornwall and Devon, which he had reason to suppose that Spain meant to attack. He considered that three hundred soldiers successfully landed at Plymouth would be sufficient to endanger and destroy the whole Shire. And he discussed the possibility of levying troops from the two counties to be a mutual protection. It was doubtless his vigor and ability in performing this sort of work, which led to his being selected as the chief purveyor of levies for the Cadiz expedition, and this was what he was doing in the spring of 1596 when the creatures of Essex whispered to one another that he was malingering. On May the 3rd he wrote to Cecil, quote, I am not able to live to row up and down every tide from Gravesend to London, and he that lies here at Ratcliffe can easily judge when the rest and how the rest of the ships may sail down, end quote, and again from the lower point of the Thames at Blackwall he is still waiting for men and ships that will not come and is, quote, more grieved than ever I was at anything in this world for this cross-weather, end quote. Through the month of May we may trace Riley hard at work, recruiting for the Cadiz expedition round the southern coast of England. On the 4th he is at North Fleet, disgusted to find how little Her Majesty's authority is respected, for, quote, as fast as we press men one day they come away another and say they will not serve. I cannot write to our generals at this time for the pursuant found me at a country village a mile from Gravesend hunting after runaway mariners and dragging in the mire from alehouse to alehouse and could get no paper, end quote. On the 6th he was at Queensborough on the 13th October whence he reports disaster by a storm on Goodwin Sands and finally on the 21st he arrived at Plymouth. His last letters are full of recommendations of personal friends to appointments in the gift or at the command of Sir Robert Cecil. He brought with him to Plymouth two of Bacon's cousins, the cooks, and his own wife's brother, Arthur Throckmorton. Unfortunately, just as the fleet was starting, the last mentioned a hot-headed youth, in presence not only of the four generals but of the commanders of the Dutch contingent also, took Raleigh's side in some dispute at table so intemperately and loudly that he was dismissed from the service. This must have been singularly annoying to Raleigh who nevertheless persuaded his colleagues, no doubt on receipt of due apology, to restore the young man to his rank and allow him to proceed. At Cadiz, Throckmorton fought so well that Essex himself knighted him. The generals had other troubles at Plymouth. The men that Raleigh had pressed along the coast hated their duty and some of them had to be tried for desertion and mutiny. Before the fleet got under way, two men were publicly hanged to encourage the others, quote, on a very fair and pleasant green called the hoe, end quote. At last, on June 1st, the squadrons put to sea. Contrary winds kept them within Plymouth's sound until the 3rd. On the 20th they anchored in the Bay of San Sebastian, half a lead to the westward of Cadiz. The four English divisions of the fleet contained in all 93 vessels and the Dutch squadron consisted of 24 more. There were about 15,500 men, that is to say 2,600 Dutchmen and the rest equally divided between English soldiers and sailors. The events of the next few days were not merely a crucial and final test of the relative strength of Spain and England, closing in a brilliant triumph for the latter, but to Raleigh in particular they were the climax of his life, the summit of his personal prosperity and glory. The records of the Battle of Cadiz are exceedingly numerous and were drawn up not by English witnesses only, but by Dutch and Spanish historians also. Mr Edwards has patiently collected them all and he gives a very minute and lucid account of their various divergences. Of them all the most full and direct is that given by Raleigh himself in his Relation of the Action in Cadiz Harbour first published in 1699. In a biography of Raleigh it seems but reasonable to view such an event as this from Raleigh's own standpoint and the description which now follows is mainly taken from the relation. The joint fleet paused where the Atlantic beats upon the walls of Cadiz and the Spanish President wrote to Philip II that they seemed afraid to enter. He added that it formed Las Más Homosa Amada, que se ha visto, the most beautiful fleet that ever was seen and that it was French as well as English and Dutch, which was a mistake. Raleigh's squadron was not part of the fleet that excited the admiration of Gutierrez Flores. On the 19th he had been detached in the words of his instructions, quote, with the ships under his charge and the Dutch squadron to anchor near the entrance of the harbour to take care that the ships riding near Cadiz do not escape, end quote, and he took up a position that commanded San Luca as well as Cadiz. He was, quote, not to fight except in self-defense, end quote, without express instructions. At the mouth of San Luca he found some great ships but they lay so near shore that he could not approach them and finally they escaped in a mist, Raleigh very nearly running his own vessel aground. Meanwhile Essex and Charles Howard, a little in front of him, came to the conclusion in his absence that it would be best to land the soldiers and assault the town without attempting the Spanish fleet. Two hours after this determination had been arrived at, much to the dismay of many distinguished persons in the fleet, whose position did not permit them to expostulate, Raleigh arrived to find Essex in the very act of disembarking his soldiers. There was a great sea on from the south and some of the boats actually sank in the waves, but Essex nevertheless persisted and was about to effect a landing west of the city. Raleigh came on board the repulse, quote, and in the presence of all the colonels protested against the resolution, end quote, showing Essex from his own superior knowledge and experience that by acting in this way he was running a risk of overthrowing, quote, the whole army's their own lives and Her Majesty's future safety, end quote. Essex excused himself and laid the responsibility on the Lord Admiral. Raleigh, having once dared to oppose the generals, he received instant moral support, all the other commanders and gentlemen present clustered round him and entreated him to persist. Essex now declared himself convinced and begged Raleigh to repeat his arguments to the Lord Admiral. Raleigh passed on to Howard's ship, the Ark Royal, and by the evening the Admiral also was persuaded. Returning in his boat, as he passed the repulse, Raleigh shouted up to Essex, Intramus, and the impetuous Earl, now as eager for a fight by sea as he had been a few hours before for a fight by land, flung his hat into the sea for joy and prepared at that late hour to weigh anchor at once. It took a good deal of time to get the soldiers out of the boats and back into their respective ships. Essex, whom Raleigh seems to hint at under the cautious word, many, quote, seeming deliberately valiant, thought it a fault of mine to put off the attack till the morning, albeit we had neither agreed in what manner to fight nor appointed who should lead and who should second whether by boarding or otherwise, end quote. Raleigh, in his element when rapid action was requisite, passed to and fro between the generals, and at last from his own ship wrote a hasty letter to the Lord Admiral, giving his opinion as to the best way to arrange the order of battle and requesting him to supply a couple of great flyboats to attack each of the Spanish galleons so that the latter might be captured before they were set on fire. Essex and Howard were completely carried away by Raleigh's vehement councils. The Lord Admiral had always shown deference to Raleigh's nautical science, and the earl was captivated by the qualities he could best admire, courage and spirit and rapidity. Raleigh's old faults of stubbornness and want of tact abandoned him at this happy moment. His graceful courtesy to Essex, his delicacy in crossing dangerous ground, one praise even from his worst enemies, the satellites of Essex. It was Raleigh's blossoming hour and all the splendid gifts and vigorous charms of his brain and character expanded in the sunrise of victory. Late in the busy evening of the twentieth, the four leaders held a final council of war, amiably wrangling among themselves for the post of danger. At last the others gave way to what Raleigh calls his humble suit, and it was decided that he should lead the van. Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and the Vice Admiral, Lord Thomas Howard, were to lead the body of the fleet, but it appeared next morning that the Vice Admiral had but seemed to give way and that his ambition was still to be ahead of Raleigh himself. As Raleigh returned to sleep on board the warsprite, the town of Cadiz was all ablaze with lamps, tapers and tar-barrels, while they came faintly out to the ears of the English sailors a murmur of wild, festal music. Next day was the twenty-first of June. As Mr. Singin pleasantly says, quote, that St. Barnabas Day, so often the brightest in the year, was likewise the brightest of Raleigh's life, end quote. At break of day the amazed inhabitants of Cadiz and the sailors who had coroused all night on shore and now hurried on board the galleons, watched the magnificent squadrons sweep into the harbour of their city. First came the warsprite itself, next the Mary Rose, commanded by Sir George Carew. Then Sir Francis Veer in the rainbow, carrying a sullen heart of envy with him. Then Sir Robert Southwell in the lion. Sir Conyers Clifford in the dreadnought, and lastly, as Raleigh supposed, Robert Dudley, afterwards Duke of Northumberland and a distinguished author on naval tactics, in the non-paria. As a matter of fact, the vice admiral, hoping to contrive to push in front, had persuaded Dudley to change ships with him. These six vessels were well in advance of all the rest of the fleet. In front of them, ranged under the wall of Cadiz, 17 galleons lying with their prowls to flank the English entrance as Raleigh plowed on towards the galleons. The fortress of St. Philip and other forts along the wall began to scour the channel and with the galleons concentrated their fire upon the warsprite. But Raleigh disdained to do more than salute the one and then the other with the contemptuous blare of trumpets. Quote, the St. Philip, he says, the great and famous admiral of Spain was the mark I shot at, esteeming those galleys but as wasps in respect of the powerfulness of the others, end quote. The St. Philip had a special attraction for him. It was six years since his dear friend and cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, under the lee of the Azores, with one little ship, the Revenge, had been hemmed in and crushed by the vast fleet of Spain and was the St. Philip and the St. Andrew that had been foremost in that act of murder. Now before Raleigh there rose the same lumbering monsters of the deep, that very St. Philip and St. Andrew which had looked down and watched Sir Richard Grenville die, quote, as a true soldier ought to do fighting for his country, queen, religion and honour, end quote. It seems almost fabulous that the hour of pure poetical justice should strike so soon and that Raleigh of all living Englishmen should thus come face to face with those of all the Spanish tyrants of the deep. As he swung forward into the harbour and saw them there before him, the death of his kinsmen in the Azores was solemnly present to his memory, quote, and being resolved to be revenged for the revenge, or to second her with his own life, quote, as he says, he came to anchor close to the galleons and for three hours the battle with them proceeded. It began by the war sprite being in the centre and a little to the front, on the one side the non-peria in which Raleigh now perceived Lord Thomas Howard and the lion on the other, the Mary Rose and the Dreadnaught. These, with the rainbow a little farther out, kept up the fight alone until ten o'clock in the morning, waiting for the fly-boats which were to board the galleons and which, for some reason or other, did not arrive. Meanwhile Essex, excited beyond all restraint by the bollies of Culverin and Cannon, slipped anchor and passing from the body of the fleet, lay close up to the war sprite, pushing the Dreadnaught on one side. Raleigh, seeing him coming, went to meet him in his skiff and begged him to see that the fly-boats were sent, as the battery was beginning to be more than his ships could bear. The Lord Admiral was following Essex and Raleigh passed on to him with the same entreaty. This parley between the three commanders occupied about a quarter of an hour. Meanwhile the men's second-in-command had taken an unfair advantage of Raleigh's absence. He hurried back to find that the vice-admiral had pushed the non-perilla ahead and that Sir Francis Veer, too, in the rainbow, had passed the war sprite. Finding himself, quote, from being the first to being but the third, end quote, Raleigh skillfully thrust in between these two ships and threw himself in front of them broadside to the channel, so that, as he says, quote, I was sure no one should out-start me again for that day. End quote. Finally Essex and Lord Thomas Howard took their next places. Sir Francis Veer, the marshal, who seems to have been mad for precedence, quote, while we had no leisure to look behind us, secretly fastened a rope on my ship's side toward him to draw himself up equally with me, but some of my company advertising me thereof, I caused it to be cut off, and so he fell back into his place, whom I guarded all but his very prow from the sight of the enemy. End quote. In his commentaries Veer has his revenge and carefully disparages Raleigh on every occasion. For some reason or other the flyboats continued to delay, and Raleigh began to despair of them. What he now determined to do, and what revenge he took for Sir Richard Gwenville, may best be told in his own vigorous language. Quote, having no hope of my flyboats to board, and the Earl and my Lord Thomas having both promised to second me, I laid out a warp by the side of the Philip to shake hands with her, for with the wind we could not get aboard. Which when she and the rest perceived, finding also that the repulse, seeing mine, began to do the like, and the rear admiral my Lord Thomas, they all let slip and ran aground, tumbling into the sea heaps of soldiers as thick as if coals had been poured out of a sap in many ports at once. One drowned, and some sticking in the mud. The Philip and the St. Thomas burned themselves. The St. Matthew and the St. Andrew were recovered by our boats, ere they could get out to fire them. The spectacle was very lamentable on their side, for many drowned themselves. Many half-burned leaped into the water, very many hanging by the rope's end, by the ship's side, under the water, even to the lips, many swimming with grievous wounds, stricken under water, and put out of their pain. And with also huge a fire, and such tearing of the ordinance of the great Philip and the rest, when the fire came to them as, if a man had a desire to see hell itself, it was there most lively figured. Ourself spared the lives of all after the victory, but the Flemmings, who did little or nothing in the fight, used merciless slaughter till they were by myself and afterwards by my Lord Admiral, beaten off." The official report of the Duke of Medina Sidonia to Philip II does not greatly differ from this, except that he says that the English set fire to the St. Philip. Before the fight was over, Riley received a very serious flesh wound in the leg. Quote, interlaced and deformed with splinters. End quote, which made it impossible for him to get on horseback. He was, therefore, to his great disappointment, unable to take part in Essex's land attack on the town. He could not, however, bear to be left behind, and in a litter he was carried into Cadiz. He could only stay an hour on shore, however, for the agony in his leg was intolerable, and in the tumultuous disorder of the soldiers, who were sacking the town, the danger of his being rudely pushed and shouldered. He went back to the warsprite to have his wound dressed and to sleep, and found that in the general rush on shore his presence in the fleet was highly desirable. Early next morning, feeling eased by a night's rest, he sent on shore to Askleve to follow the fleet of forty caracks bound for the Indies, which had escaped down the Puerto Real River. This navy was said to be worth twelve millions. In the confusion, however, there came back no answer from Essex or Howard. A ransom of two millions had, meanwhile, been offered for them, but this, also, in the absence of his chiefs, Riley had no power to accept. While he was thus uncertain, the Duke of Medina-Sedonia solved the difficulty on June the 23rd by setting the whole flock of helpless and treachery-laden caracks on fire. From the deck of the warsprite, Riley had the mortification of seeing the smoke of this priceless argosy go up to heaven. The wastes had been great, for of all the galleons, caracks and frigates of which the great Spanish navy had consisted, only the St. Matthew and the St. Andrew had come intact into the hands of the English. The Dutch sailors, who had held back until the fight was decided, sprang upon the blazing St. Philip and saved a great part of her famous store of ordnance, while as Riley pleasantly puts it, the two apostles aforesaid were richly furnished and made an agreeable prize to bring back for England. The English generals engaged in sacking the palaces and raising the fortifications of Cadiz were strangely indifferent to the anxieties of their friends at home. In England the wildest rumours passed from mouth to mouth and it was a fortnight before anyone on the spot thought it necessary to communicate with the home government. It is said that Riley's letter to Cecil, written ten leagues to the west of Cadiz on July the 7th, and character England by Sir Anthony Ashley, contained the first intimation of the victory. In this letter Riley is careful to do himself justice with the Queen and to claim a complete pardon on the score of services so signal. For it was already patent to him that on a field where every man that would be helped must help himself, his wounded leg had shut him out of all hope at plunder. The cause of his standing so far as ten leagues away from shore was that an epidemic had broken out on board his ship. It proved impossible to cope with this disease and so it was determined that on August the 1st the warsprite should return to England in company with the Roebuck and the John and Francis. On the 6th day they arrived in Plymouth and Riley found that although seven weeks had elapsed since the victory no authentic account of it had hitherto reached the council. He was not well and instead of posting up to London where he easily perceived he would not be welcome he asked pardon for staying with his ship. On August the 12th he landed at Plymouth and passed home to Sherbourne. The rest of the fleet came back later in the autumn and Essex as he passed the coast of Portugal swooped down upon the famous library of the Bishop of Algarve which he presented on his return to Sir Thomas Bodley. The Bodleian library at Oxford is now the chief existing memorial of that glorious expedition to Cadiz which shattered the naval strength of Spain. As surprise money there proved to be very little of it for the captors. It was understood that the Lord Admiral was to have five thousand pounds Essex as much and Riley three thousand pounds but Essex in his proud way took his claim in favour of the Queen just in time to escape spoliation for Elizabeth claimed everything. Her scandalous avarice had grown upon her year by year and now in her old age her finer and more generous qualities were sapped by her greed for money. Even her political acumen had failed her. She was unable to see in her vexation at the loss of the Indian caracks that the blow to Spain had been one which relieved her of a constant and immense anxiety. She determined that no one should be the richer or the nobler for a victory which had resulted in the destruction of so much treasure which might have flowed into her coffers. Deeply disappointed at the Queen's surly ingratitude Riley whom she still refused to see retired for the next nine months into absolute seclusion at Sherbourne. In his retirement Riley continued to remember that his function was, as the oldest put it, quote, by his extraordinary undertakings to raise a grove of laurels in a manner out of the seas that should overspread our island with glory, end quote. In October 1596 he was preparing for his third expedition to Guyana which he placed under the command of Captain Leonard Berry. This navigator was absent until the summer of the following year when he returned not having penetrated to Manoa but confirming with an almost obsequious report Riley's most golden dreams. It is at this time after his return from Cadiz that we find Sir Walter Riley's name mentioned most lavishly by the literary classes in their dedications and eulogistic addresses. Whether his popularity was at the same time high with the general public asserted them proved but there is no doubt that the victory at Cadiz was highly appreciated by the mass of Englishmen and it is not possible but that Riley's prominent share in it should be generally recognised. On January 24th 1597 Riley wrote from Sherbourne a letter of sympathy to Sir Robert Cecil on the death of his wife. It is interesting as displaying Riley's intimacy with the members of a family to hold a prominent place in the chronicle of his life. Since it was Henry Brooke Lady Cecil's brother who became two months later at the death of his father Lord Cobham. It was he and his brother George Brooke who in 1603 became notorious as the conspirators for Arabella Stewart and who dragged Riley down with them. We do not know when Riley began to be intimate with the Brooks and it is just at this time when his fortunes had reached their climacteric and when it would be of the highest importance to us to follow them closely that his personal history suddenly becomes vague. If Cecil's letters to him have been preserved we should know more as it is we can but record certain isolated facts and make as much use of them as we can venture to do. In May 1597 nearly five years after his expulsion we find him received again at court. Roland White says quote, Sir Walter Riley is daily in court and I hope his had that he shall be admitted to the execution of his office as captain of the guard before he goes to see end quote. Cecil and Howard of Effingham had obtained this return to favour for their friend and Essex although his momentary liking for Riley had long subsided did not oppose it. He could not however be present when Timmyus was taken back into the arms of his pardoning Belfoebi. On June 1 the Earl of Essex rode down to Chatham and during his absence Sir Walter Riley was conducted by Cecil into the presence of the Queen. She received him very graciously and immediately authorized him to resume his office of captain of the guard. Without loss of time Riley filled up the vacancies in the guard that very day and spent the evening riding with Her Majesty. Next morning he made his appearance in the privy chamber as he had been want to do and his return to favour was complete. Essex showed and apparently felt no very acute chagrin. He was busy in planning another expedition against Spain and he needed Riley's help in arranging for the victuring of the land forces. In July all jealousies seemed to stay aside and the Gossips of the Court reported none but Cecil and Riley enjoy the Earl of Essex they carry him away as they list. End quote. It lies far beyond the scope of the present biography to discuss the obscure question of the conceit of Richard II with which these three amused themselves just before the island voyage began. The bare facts are these. On July 6 Riley wrote to Cecil from Weyman about the preparations for the expedition and added quote I acquainted the Lord General Essex with your letter to me and your kind acceptance of your entertainment. He was also wonderful Mary at your conceit of Richard II I hope it shall never alter and whereof I shall be most glad of as the true way to all are good, quiet and advancement and most of all for his sake whose affairs shall thereby find better progression end quote. From this it would seem as though Cecil had offered a dramatic entertainment to Essex and Riley on their leaving town. This entertainment evidently consisted of Shakespeare's new tragedy then being performed at the Globe Theatre and to be entered for publication just a month later. When this play was printed it did not contain what is called the deposition scene but it would appear that this was given on the boards at the time when Riley refers to it. It will be remembered that in 1601 the lawyers accused Essex of having feasted his eyes beforehand with a show of the dethronement of his leash but Riley's words do not suggest any direct disloyalty. Riley was in a state of considerable excitement at the prospect of the new expedition. Cecil wrote quote and the fact that Riley would sometimes write twice and thrice to him in one day and on a single occasion at least four times proves that Cecil had a right to use this mild sarcasm. Several months before Riley had attempted by his manifesto entitled the Spanish Alarum to stir up the government to be in full readiness to guard against a revengeful invasion of England. And the fact that Riley would sometimes write twice and thrice to him against a revengeful invasion of England by her old enemy he had thought out the whole situation he had planned the defences of England by land and sea and his new favourite court had enabled him to put pressure on the royal parsilmini and to insist that things should be done as he saw fit. He was perfectly right in thinking that Philip II would rather suffer complete ruin than not try once more to recover his position in Europe but he saw that the late losses at Cadiz would force the Catholic king to delay his incursion and he counseled a rapid and direct second attack on Spain. As soon as ever he was restored to power he began to virtual a fleet of ten men in war with biscuit, beef, bacon and salt fish and to call for volunteers. As the scheme sees the popular mind however it gathered in extent and it was finally decided to fit up three large squadrons with a Dutch contingent of 12 ships. These vessels met in Plymouth Sound. On the night of Sunday, July the 11th the fleet left Plymouth and kept together for 24 hours. On the morning of the 12th after a night of terrific storm Riley found his squadron of four ships parted from the rest and in the course of the next day only one vessel beside his own was in sight. This tempest was immortalised in his earliest known poem by John Dunn who was in the expedition and was described by Riley as follows. Quote and yet our ships rolled so vehemently and so disjointed themselves that we were driven either to force it again with our courses or to sink. In my ship it had shaken all her beams, knees and stanchions well nigh a thunder in so much on Saturday night last we made account to have yielded ourselves up to God for we had no way to work either by trying, hauling or driving that promised better hope our men being worsted with labour and watchings and our ships so open everywhere all her bulkheads rent and her very cookroom of brick shaken down into powder. End Quote Such were the miseries of navigation in the palmy days of English adventure by sea. The end of it was that the vessels crept back into Falmouth and Torbay. Some were lost altogether and Riley with the remainder found harbour on July the 18th at Plymouth. For a month they lay there recovering their forces and Essex whose own ship was at Falmouth came over to Plymouth and was Riley's guest on the warsprite. Riley writes to Cecil Quote I should have taken it unkindly if my lord had taken up any other lodging to try and come and now Her Majesty may be sure his lordship shall sleep somewhere the sounder though he fare the worse by being from me for I am an excellent watchman at sea. End Quote In this same letter dated July the 26th 1597 the fatal name of Cobham first appears in the correspondence of Riley. Quote I pray vouchsafe he says to remember me in all affection to Cobham. End Quote On August the 18th in the face of a westerly wind the fleet put out once more from Plymouth. In the Bay of Biscay the St Andrew and the St Matthew were disabled and had to be left behind at La Rochelle. Off the coast of Portugal Riley himself had a serious accident but his main yard snapped across and he had to put in for help by the Rock of Lisbon in company with the Dreadnaught. Essex left a letter saying that Riley must follow him as fast as he could to the Azores and on September the 8th the war sprite came in view of Tessira. On the 15th Riley's squadron joined the main fleet under Essex at Flores. The distress of the voyage with its separations had told upon the temper of Essex while he was surrounded by those who were eager to poison his mind with suspicion of Riley. When the latter dined with Essex in the repulse on the 15th the Earl with his usual impulsiveness made a clean breast of his conjectures and surmises letting Riley know the very names of those scandalous and cankered persons who had ventured to accuse him and assuring him that he rejected their counsel. On this day or the next a pinnace from India brought the news that the yearly fleet was changing its usual course and would arrive farther south in the Azores. A council of war was held in the repulse and it was resolved to divide the archipelago among the commanders. Fail was to be taken by Essex and Riley, Graciosa by Howard and Veer, San Miguel by Mountjoy and Blount, while Pico with its famous wines was left for the Dutchman. Essex sailed first and left Riley taking improvisions at Flores where he dined in a small inland town with his old acquaintance Lord Grey and others including Sir Arthur Gorgeous, the minute historian of the expedition. About midnight when they were safe in their ships again Captain Arthur Champernown, Riley's kinsman, arrived with a letter from Essex desiring Riley to come over to Fayelle at once and complete his supplies there. With his usual promptitude he started instantly and outstripped Essex. When Riley arrived in the great harbour of Fayelle the peaceful look of everything assured him in a moment that Essex had not yet been heard of. But no sooner did the inhabitants perceive the war sprite and the dread-naught than they began to throw up defences and remove their valuables into the interior. It was in the highest degree irksome to Riley to wait thus inactive while this handsome Spanish colony was slipping from his clutch but he had been forbidden to move without orders. After three days waiting for Essex the Council of War was held on board the war sprite. On the fourth Riley leaped into his barge at the head of a landing company refusing the help of the Flemings who were with him and stormed the cliffs. It was comparatively easy to get his troops on shore but the Spaniards contested the road to the town inch by inch. At last Riley and his 450 men routed their opponents and entered Fayelle a town full of fine gardens, orchards and wells of delicate waters with fair streets and one very fair church and allowed his men to plunder it. The English soldiers slept that night in Fayelle and when they woke next morning they saw the tardy squadron of Essex come warping into the harbour at last. Gilly Merrick, the bitterest of the parasites of Essex slipped into a boat and was on board the repulse as soon as she anchored reporting Riley's conduct to the Earl. Riley must have known that Essex was not the man to be pleased at a feat which took all the credit of the island's voyage out of his hands but he feigned unconsciousness. In his barge he came out from Fayelle to greet the Earl and entered the General's cabin. After a faint welcome Essex began to reproach him with a breach of orders and articles and to point out to him that in capturing Fayelle without authority he had made himself liable to the punishment of death. Riley replied that he was exempt from such orders being in succession to Essex and Lord Howard himself commander of the whole fleet by the Queen's letters patent. After a dispute of half an hour Essex seemed satisfied and accepted an invitation to supple Riley on shore. But another malcontent, Sir Christopher Blount obtained his ear and sent his resentment blazing once more. Essex told Riley he should not supple at all that night. Riley left the repulse and prepared to separate his squadron from the fleet. Less than an attempt should be made to force him to undergo the indignity of the court-martial. Howard finally made peace between the two commanders and Riley was induced to give some sort of apology for his action. The fleet proceeded to San Miguel when Riley was left to watch the roadstead while Essex pushed inland. While Riley lay there a great Indian karak of 1600 tons laden with spices knowing nothing of the English invasion blundered into the middle of what she took to be a friendly Spanish fleet. She perceived her mistake just in time to run herself ashore and disembark her crew. Riley at the head of a party of boats attempted to seize her but her commander set her on fire and when the Englishman came close to her she was one dangerous splendour of flaming perfumes and roaring cannon. Riley was more fortunate in securing another karak laden with cochineal from Cuba. The rest of the island's voyage was uneventful and ill-managed. For some time nothing was heard of the fleet in England and Lady Riley scrambled as she spelled it hasty notes to Cecil begging for news of her husband. Early in October he came back to England seriously enfeebled in health. The only one of the commanders who gained any advantage from the island's voyage was the one who had undertaken least, Lord Howard of Effingham who was raised to the earldom of Nottingham. End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of Riley This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Tony Oliva. Riley by Edmund Goss Chapter 6 Last days of Elizabeth A slight anecdote which is connected with the month of January of 1598 must not be omitted here. It gives us an impression of the personal habits of Riley at this stage of his career. It was the custom of the Queen to go to bed early and one winter's evening the Earl of Southampton Riley and a man named Parker were playing the game of Primero in the presence chamber after her Majesty had retired. They laughed and talked rather loudly upon which Ambrose Willoughby, the Esquire of the body, came out and desired them not to make so much noise. Riley pocketed his money and went off but Southampton resented the interference and in the scuffle that ensued Willoughby pulled out a handful of those marjoram coloured curls that Shakespeare praised. It is not easy to see why it was that in the obscure year of 1598 while the star of Essex was setting that his natural rival did not burn more brightly but although now and for the brief remainder of Elizabeth's life, Riley was nominally in favour the saddening old woman had no longer any tenderness for her captain of the guard. Her old love her old friendship had quite passed away. There was no longer any excuse for excluding from her presence or valuable a soldier and so wise a courtier but her pulses had ceased to thrill at his coming. If Essex had been half so courteous, half so assiduous as Riley she would have opened her arms to him but she had offended Essex past forgiveness and his tongue held no parley with her. It must have been in Riley's presence for he it is who has recorded it in the grave pages of his prerogative of parliament that Essex told the queen that her conditions were as crooked as her carcass a terrible speech which as Riley says cost in his head. This was perhaps a little later in 1600 in 1598 these cruel squabbles were already making life at court a misery. The queen kept Riley by her but would give him nothing in January he applied for the post of Vice Chamberlain but without success. The new Earl Lord Nottingham could theatrically wipe the dust from Riley's shoes with his cloak but when Riley himself desired to be made a peer in the spring of 1598 he was met with a direct refusal he would feign have been lord deputy in Ireland but the queen declined to spare him on the last day of August he was in the very act of being sworn on the privy council but at the final moment Cecil frustrated this by saying that if he were made a counsellor he must resign his captainship of the guard to Sir George Karoo. This was as Cecil was aware to greater sacrifice to be thought of and the hero of Cadiz and Fayal foiled on every hand had to submit to remain plain Sir Walter Riley Knight. The breach grew between Essex and the queen the temper of the former grew more surly he dropped the semblance of civility to Riley in his apathems Lord Bacon has preserved an amusing anecdote of November 17th of 1598 on this day which was the queen's 65th birthday the leading courtiers of the council tilted in the ring in honour of their liege the custom of this piece of mocks chivalry demanded that each knight should be disguised it was however known that Sir Walter Riley would ride in his own uniform of orange tawny medley trimmed with black budge of lambswool Essex to vex him with a bodyguard of two thousand retainers all dressed in orange tawny so that Riley and his men should seem a fragment of the great Essex following the story goes on to show that Essex digged a pit and fell into it himself but enough has been said to prove his malignant intention we have little else but anecdotes to fill up the gap in Riley's career between December of 1597 and March of 1600 this was an exceedingly quiet period in his life during which we have to fancy him growing more and more at enmity with Essex and more and more intimate with Cobham in September of 1598 an unexpected ally the Duke of Finland urged Riley to undertake once more his attempt to colonize Guyana and offered 12 ships as his own contingent two months later we find that the hint has been taken and that Sir John Gilbert is preparing with all speed to make a voyage to Guyana and said more over that he intended to inhabit it with English people he never started however and Riley referring long afterwards to the events of these years said that those Cecils seemed to encourage him in his West Indian projects yet that when it came to the point he always as Riley quaintly put it retired into his back shop meanwhile the interest felt in Riley's narrative was increasing and in 1599 the well known geographer Levinus Hulsius brought out in Murenberg a Latin translation of the discovery with five curious plates including one of the city of Manoa and another of the Ewa Panoma or Men Without Heads the German version of the book and it's English reprint in Haklut's navigations belong to the same year also in 1599 the discovery was reproduced in Latin, German and French by Debris in the 8th part of his celebrated collectiones Peregrinazionium this year then in which we hardly hear Riley mark the height of his success as a geographical writer so absolutely is the veil drawn over his personal history at this time that the only facts we possess are that on November 4 Riley was lying sick with an egg you and that on December 13 he was still ill in the middle of March 1600 Sir Walter and Lady Riley left Durham House for Sherbourne taking with them as a playmate for their son Walter Sir Robert Cecil's eldest son William afterwards the second Earl of Salisbury on the way down to Dorseture they stopped at Sean House as the guests of the Wizard Earl of Northumberland a lifelong friend of Riley's most intelligent fellow prisoner in the tower from Sherbourne Riley wrote on the 6th of April saying frankly that if Her Majesty persisted in excluding him from every sort of preferment I must begin to keep sheep be time he hinted in the same letter that he would accept the governorship of Jersey the friendship with Lord Cobham has now become quite ardent and Lady Riley vies with her husband in urging him to pay Sherbourne a visit later on in April the Rallies went to Bath apparently for no other reason than to meet Cobham there here is a curious note from Riley to the most dangerous of his associates written from Bath 29th of 1600 here we attend you and have done this seven night and we still mourn your absence the rather because we fear that your mind is changed I pray let us hear from you at least for if you come not we will go here by home and make but short tarrying here my wife will despair ever to see you in these parts if your lordship come not now we can but long for you and wish you as our own lives whatsoever your lordship's ever faithful to honor you most W. Rallie Rallie's absence from court was so lengthy that it was whispered in the early summer that he was in disgrace that the queen had called something worse than cat or dog namely, fox the absurdity of this was proved early in July by his being hurriedly called to town to accompany Cobham and Northumberland on their brief and fruitless visit to Austin the friends started from sandwich on July 11th and were received in the low countries by Lord Gray they were entertained at Austin with extraordinary respect but they gained nothing a political or diplomatic value of as in Ireland connected with the Spanish invasion occupied Rallie's mind and pen during this autumn but he paid no visit to his monster states there were plots and counter plots developing in various parts of these islands in the autumn of these subterranean activities is Rallie for the present to be identified when Sir Anthony Paul died on August 26th of 1600 Rallie had the satisfaction of succeeding him in the governorship of Jersey he had asked for the reversion of this post and none could be found more appropriate to his powers or circumstances it gave him once more the opportunity to cultivate his restless energy to fly hither and thither by sea and land to harry the English channel for Spaniards as a terrier watches a haystack for rats Weymouth which was the English postal port for Jersey was also the natural harbour of Sherbourne as it was to keep more than one vessel there the appointment in Jersey was combined with a gift of the manner of St. Germain in that island but the queen thought it right in consideration of this present to strike off 300 pounds from the governor's salary Cecil was Rallie's guest at Sherbourne when the appointment was made and Rallie waited until he left before starting for his new charge all this time young William Cecil continued at Sherbourne for his health at last late in September Sir Walter and Lady Rallie went down to Weymouth and took with them their little son Walter now about six years old the day was very fine and the mother and son saw a new governor on board his ship he was kept at sea 48 hours by contrary winds but reached Jersey at last on an October morning Rallie wrote home to his wife that he never saw a pleasant island than Jersey but protested that it was not in value the very third part of what had been reported one of his first visits was to the castle of Montorguy which had been rebuilt seven years before his intention had been to destroy it but he was so much struck with its stately architecture and commanding position that he determined to spare it and in fact he told off a detachment of his men then and there to guard it Rallie's work in Jersey was considerable while he remained governor he established a trade between Dan Newfoundland undertook to register real property according to a definite system abolished unpopular compulsory service of the court of guard and lightened in many directions the fiscal burdens which previous governors had laid on the population Rallie's beneficent rule in Jersey lasted just three years while he was absent on this his first visit to the island Lady Rallie at Sherbourne received news from Cecil of the partial destruction of Durham house by a fire which had broken out in the old stables none of Rallie's valuables were injured but Lady Rallie suggests that it is high time something were definitely settled about property in this rotten house which Sir Walter was constantly repairing and improving without possessing any proper lease of it as a matter of fact when the crash came Durham house was the first of his losses early in November of 1600 Rallie was in Cornwell improving the condition of the tin workers and going through his duties in the Stannery's court of lost with you we find him protecting private enterprise on roeboro down against the burl of Plymouth which desired to stop the tin works and the year closes with his activities on behalf of the establishment of good laws among tenors the first two months of 1601 were occupied with a picturesque tragedy of Essex trial and execution it seems that Rallie was at last provoked into open enmity of the taunts and threats of the Lord Marshall among the strange acts of Essex none has been more strange than his extraordinary way of complaining like a child of anyone who might displease him in his letter to the queen on June 25th of 1599 he openly named Rallie Cobham as his enemies and the enemies of England not reflecting that both of these personages were in the Queen's confidence and that he was out of it we may presume that it was more than Rallie could bear to be shown a letter addressed to the Queen in which Essex deliberately accused him of wishing the ill success of your Majesty's important action the decay of your greatest strength and the destruction of your faithfulest servants there were some things Rallie could not forgive and the accusation that he favoured Spain was one of these shot up among his creatures in his house in the strand and refused all communication with Elizabeth Essex thought no accusation too libelous to spread against the trio who held the royal ear against Rallie Cecil and Cobham whose daggers he said were thirsting for his blood it was probably in the summer of 1600 that Rallie wrote the curious letter of advice to Cecil which forms the only evidence we possess that he had definitely come to the decision that Essex must die his language admits no doubt of his intention he says if you take it for a good council to relent towards this tyrant you will repent it when it shall be too late his malice is fixed and will not evaporate by any forces for he will ascribe the alteration to her majesty's pusillanimity and not to your good nature knowing that you work but upon her humour and not out of any love towards him the less you make him the less he shall be able to harm you and yours and if her majesty's favour fail him person for after revengeance fear them not for your own father was esteemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ruin yet his son follow with your father's son and love with him this advice has been stigmatised as worse than ungenerous it was at all events extremely to the point that for Raleigh and Cecil the time for showing generosity to Essex was passed they took no overt steps however but it is plain that they kept themselves informed of the mad meetings that went on in Essex House on the morning before the insurrection was to break out February 18th of 1601 Raleigh sent a note to his kensmen Fernando Gorgias who was one of Essex's men to come down to Durham House to speak with him Gorgias startled at the message consulted Essex who advised him to say that he would meet Raleigh not at Durham House but halfway on the river Raleigh assented to this and came alone while Gorgias with two other men met him Raleigh told his cousin that a warrant was out to seize him and advised him to leave London at once for Plemeth Gorgias said it was too late and a long conversation ensued in the course of which a boat was seen to glide away from Essex Stairs and to approach them upon this Gorgias pushed home as he rode off toward Durham House four shots from the second boat missed him it had been manned by Sir Christopher Blount who with three or four servants of Essex had come out to capture or else kill Raleigh for this treason Blount asked and obtained Raleigh's pardon a few days later on the scaffold of his life Essex also had desired to speak with Raleigh having already solemnly retracted the accusations he had made against him but it is said that this message of peace was not conveyed to Raleigh until it was too late according to Raleigh's own account he had been standing near the scaffold on purpose to see it because he was not spoken to his words in 1618 were these it is said I was a persecutor of my lord of Essex that I puffed out tobacco in disdain when he was on the scaffold but I take God to witness I shed tears for him when he died I confess I was of a contrary faction that he was a noble gentleman those that set me up against him did afterwards set themselves against me Raleigh was accused of barbarity by the adherents of Essex but there is nothing to rebut the testimony of one of his own greatest enemies Blount who confessed a few minutes before he died leaves Sir Walter Raleigh intended to assassinate the Earl nor that Essex himself feared it only it was a word cast out to color other matters we are told that Raleigh suffered from a profound melancholy as he was rode back to the tower to Durham House after the execution of Essex and that it was afterwards believed that he was visited at that time by a presentiment at his own dreadful end during the summer of 1601 Raleigh became involved in a vexatious squire between certain of his own dorseture servants the man Mears whom he had appointed as bailiff of the Sherbourne Estates nine years before after doing trusty service to his master had gradually become aggressive and mutinous he disliked the presence of Robin Gilbert Raleigh's brother who had been made constable of Sherbourne Castle and to overlooked Mears on all occasions there began to be constant petty quarrels between the bailiff of the manor and the constable of the castle and when Raleigh at last dismissed the former bailiff and appointed another Mears put himself under the protection of an old enemy Lord Thomas Howard now Lord Howard of Binden and refused to quit in the month of August Mears audaciously arrested the rival bailiff whereupon Raleigh had Mears himself put in the stocks in the marketplace of Sherbourne the town took Raleigh's side and when Mears was released the people riotously accompanied him to his house in a massive cries when Raleigh was afterward attainted Mears took all the revenge he could and succeeded in making himself not a little offensive to Lady Raleigh so Walter Raleigh's letters testified to the great annoyance this man gave him it appears that Mears wife a broken piece but too good for such a nave was a kinswoman of Lady Essex the most curious point is that Raleigh thought that Mears was trained to forge his handwriting he tells Cecil the Earl did not make sure to like Mears nor admit him to his presence but it was thought that secretly he meant to have used him for some mischief against me and if Essex had prevailed he had been used as the counter-fitter for he writes my hand specifically that I cannot anyway discern the difference Mears was ready in the law and during the month of September sent 26 subpoenas down to Sherbourne but on October 3rd he was subdued for the time being and wrote to Cecil from his prison in the gate house that he was very sorry for what he had said so furiously and foolishly about Sir Walter Raleigh and begged for a merciful consideration of it he was pardoned but he proved a troublesome scoundrel then and afterwards early in September of 1601 Raleigh came up on business from Bath to London meaning to return at once but found himself unexpectedly called upon to stay and fulfill a graceful duty Henry IV of France being at Calais had sent a duke to be drawn with a retinue of 300 persons to pay a visit of compliment to Elizabeth it was important that the French favourites should be well received in England but no one expected him in London and the Queen was travelling Sir Arthur Savage and Sir Arthur Gorge were the duke's very insufficient escort until Raleigh fortunately made his appearance and did the honours of London in better style he took the French envoys to Westminster Abbey and to their greater satisfaction to the Bear Garden the Queen was now staying as the guest of the Marquis of Winchester at Basing and Soil on September 9th Raleigh took the duke and his suite down to the vine a house in Hampshire which he entertained the Queen visited them here and on the 12th they all came over to stay with her at Basing Park by the Queen's desire Raleigh wrote to Cobham who had stayed at Bath to come over to Basing and help to entertain the Frenchmen he added that in three or four days the visit would be over and he and Cobham could go back to Bath together with an intimate friendship between Lord Cobham and himself which is not to be overlooked in the light of coming events the French were all dressed in black a colour Raleigh did not possess in his copious wardrobe so that he had to order the making of a black taffeta suit in a hurry to Fetchwich from London he started back late on Saturday night after bringing the duke's safe down to Basing it was on the next day if the French ambassador said true that he had the astounding conversation with Elizabeth about Essex at the end of which after railing against her dead favourite she opened a casket and produced the very skull of Essex the subject of the fall of favourites was one in which Byron should have taken the keenest ten months later he himself abandoned by his king came to that frantic death in front of the Bastille which Chapman presented to English readers and the most majestic of his tragedies the visit to Elizabeth occupies the third act of Byron's conspiracy which published in 1608 contains of course no reference to Raleigh's part in that occasion it may be that in the autumn of 1601 James of Scotland first became actively cognizant of Raleigh's existence Spain was once more giving Elizabeth anxiety and threatening an invasion which actually took place on September 21st at Kinsale by means of the spies which he kept in the channel Raleigh saw the Spanish fleet advancing and warned the government though his warnings were a little too positive in pointing out Cork and Limerick as the points of attack meanwhile he wrote out for the Queen's perusal a state paper on the dangers of a Spanish faction in Scotland this paper has not been preserved but the rumour of its contents is supposed to have frightened James in his correspondence with Rome and to have made him judge it prudent to offer Elizabeth 3000 scotch troops against the invader Raleigh's casual remarks with regard to Irish affairs at this critical time as we find them in his letters to Cecil are not sympathetic or even humane and there is at least one passage which looks very much like a licensing of assassination yet it is certain that Raleigh surveying from his remote share-born that monster which he knew so well took in the salient features of the position with extraordinary success in almost every particular he showed himself a true prophet with regard to the Irish rising 1601 in November the Duke of Lenox came somewhat hastily to London from Paris entrusted with a very delicate diplomatic commission from James of Scotland to Elizabeth it is certain that he saw Raleigh and Cobham and that he discussed with them the thorny question of the succession of the English throne it more over appears the tensions traitorous to the king that is to say unfavorable to the candidature of James the whole incident is exceedingly dark and the particulars of it rest mainly on a tainted authority that of Lord Henry Howard it may be conjectured that what really happened was that the Duke of Lenox learning that Raleigh was in town ordered Sir Arthur Savage to introduce him that he then suggested a private conference which was first refused then granted in Cobham's presence at Durham House that Raleigh refused King James offers and went and told Cecil that he had done so Cecil however chose to believe that Raleigh was keeping something back from him his gratitude from this moment grows sensibly colder to Raleigh and he speaks of Raleigh's ingratitude though it is not plain what he should have been grateful for to Cecil it was now 13 years since Raleigh had abandoned the hope of colonizing Virginia though his thoughts had often reverted to that savage country of which he was the nominal Lige Lord he made a final effort to assert his authority there he sent out a certain Samuel Mace of whose expedition we know little and about the same time his nephew Bartholomew Gilbert with an experienced mariner Captain Gosnell went to look for the lost colony and city of Raleigh these ladders started in a small buck on March 26th but though they enjoyed the interest in voyage they never touched Virginia at all they discovered and named Martha's Vineyard and some other of the islands in the same group then after pleasant sojourn they came back to England and landed at Exmouth on July 23rd it was left for another man then Raleigh while he was impoverished and a prisoner in the tower of Virginia settlement perhaps the most fortunate thing that could have happened to Raleigh would have been for him to have personally conducted to the west this expedition of 1602 to have been out of England when the queen died might have saved him from the calumny of treason it has been supposed that Raleigh was a complete loser by these 13 expeditions but a passage in a letter of August 21st of 1602 shows us that this was not the fact he says neither of them spake with the people that is with the lost Virginian colonists but I do send both the barks away again having saved the charge in Sassafras Wood the same letter we find that Gilbert and Gosnell went off without Raleigh's leave though in his ship and at his expense and the latter therefore prays that his nephew may be stripped of his rich store of Sassafras and Cedar Wood partly in chastisement but more for fear of overstocking the London market he throws Gilbert over and speaks angrily of him as a kinsman but as my Lord Cobham's man then relents in a post script all is confiscate but he shall have his part again Raleigh was feeble in health and irritable in temper all this time Lady Raleigh with a woman's instinct tried to curb his ambition and tie him down in share-born my wife says that every day this place a man's London to her grows worse and worse meanwhile there is really not an atom of evidence to show that Raleigh was engaged in any political intrigue he spent the summer and autumn of 1602 when he was not at share-born in going through the round of his duties all the month of July he spent in Jersey walking in the wilderness as he says hearing from no one troubled in mind by vague rumors blown over to him from Normandy of the disgrace of the Duke de Biron he is also much pastored with the coming of many Norman gentlemen but cannot prevent it on August 9th he left Jersey in his ship the Antelope fearing if he stayed any longer to exhaust her English stores and get no more than this poor land on landing at Weymouth on the 12th he wrote inviting Cecil and Northumberland to meet him at Bath he was justly exasperated to find that during his absence Lord Howard of Benden had once more taken up the wicked steward Mears and persuaded Sir William Perriam the chief baron of the Exchequer to try the suit again while he complains to Cecil I never busied myself with the Lord Viscount's Lord Benden's wealth nor of his extortions nor poisoning of his wife as is here about have I spoken I have forborn but I will not endure wrong at so peevish a fool's hands any longer I will rather lose my life and I think that my lord Puritan Perriam doth think that the queen shall have more use of rogues and villains than of men or else he would not at Benden's instances have yielded to try actions against me being out of the land the vexation was a real one but this is the language of a petulant invalid of a man to whom the grasshopper has become a burden we are therefore not surprised to find him at Bath on September 15th so ill that he can barely write a note to Cecil warning him of the approach of a Spanish fleet the news of which has just reached him from Jersey he grew little better at Bath and in October we find him again at Shabborn in very low spirits sending by Corbom to the queen a stone which by Thalamue Gilbert had brought from America and which Raleigh took to be a diamond immediately after this he set out on what he calls his miserable journey to Cornwall no other than his customary autumn circuit through the stannery courts once he had enjoyed these bracing rides over the moors but his animal spirits were subdued and the cold mosses the streams to be forwarded the dripping October woods and the chilly granite judgment seat itself had lost their attraction for his aching joints in November however he is back at Shabborn restored to health and intending to linger in dosage as long as he can except there be cause he had to stop meanwhile he had paid a brief visit to London and had spoken with the queen as it would appear for the last time Sassel who was also present has recorded in a letter of November 4th this interview which took place the previous day on this last occasion Elizabeth sought Raleigh's advice on her Irish policy the president of Munster had reported to kill and hang diverse poor men women and children appertaining to Cormac McDermott McCarthy Lord of Muscarie and to burn all his castles and villages from Cary Grohan to Inky Gelag Sassel was inclined to think that severity had been pushed too far and that the wretched Cormac might be left in peace but Elizabeth had long been accustomed to turn to Raleigh for advice on her Irish policy he gave as usual his unflinching constant counsel for drastic severity he very earnestly moved her majesty of all others to reject Cormac McDermott first because his country was worth her keeping secondly because he lived so under the eye of the state that so ever she would it was in her power to suppress him this last one would think might have been an argument for mercy the queen instructed Sassel to tell Sir George Karoo that whatever pardon was extended to others none might be shown to Cormac it was in the same spirit of rigor that Raleigh had for two years passed advised the retention of the gentle and learned Florence McCarthy in the tower as a man reconciled to the pope dangerous to the present state beloved of such as seek the ruin of the realm and this at the very time when McCarthy trusting his 20 years acquaintance with Raleigh was praying Sassel to let him be his judge Raleigh little thought that the doors which detain Florence McCarthy would soon open for a moment to enclose himself and that in two neighboring cells through long years of captivity the history of the world would grow beside the growing history of the early ages of Ireland in this year 1602 Raleigh parted with his vast Irish estates to Richard Boyle afterwards Earl of Cork and placed the purchase money in privateering enterprises it is known that Sassel had an interest in this fleet of merchant men and as late as January 1603 he writes about a cruiser in which Raleigh and he were partners begging Raleigh from prudential reasons to conceal the fact that Sassel was in the country there was no abatement whatever in the friendliness of Sassel's tone to Raleigh although in his own crafty mind he had decided that the death of the queen should set the term to Raleigh's prosperity on March 30th of 1603 Elizabeth died and with her last breath the fortune of Raleigh expired we may pause here a moment to consider what was Raleigh's condition and fame at this critical point in his life he was over 50 years of age but in health and spirits much older than his time of life suggested his energy had shown signs of abatement and for five years he had done nothing that had drawn public attention strongly to his gifts if he had died in 1603 unattain in peace at Sherbourne it is a question whether he would have attracted the notice of posterity in any very general degree to close students of the reign of Elizabeth he would still be as Mr. Godner says the man who had more genius than all the big council put together but he would not be to us all the embodiment of the spirit of England in the great age of Elizabeth the foremost man of his time the figure which takes the same place in the field of action which Shakespeare takes in that of imagination and Bacon in that of thought for this something more was needed for the long torture of imprisonment the final crown of judicial martyrdom the slow tragedy closing on Tower Hill is the necessary complement to his greatness all this is easy to see but it is more difficult to understand what circumstances brought about a condition of things in which such a tragedy became possible to realize that Raleigh was a man of severe speech and reserved manner not easily moved to be gracious constantly reproving the sluggish by his rapidity and galling the doll by his wit all through his career we find him hard to get on with proud to his inferiors still more crabbed to those above him that he should use the arts of a diplomatist he overplayed his part and stung his rivals to the quick by an obsequiousness in speech to which his eyes and shoulders gave the lie with all his wealth and influence he missed the crowning points of his ambition he never sat in the House of Peers he never pushed his way to the Council Board he never held quite the highest rank in any naval expedition he never ruled with only the Queen above him even in Ireland he, who of all men hated most and deserved least to be an underling was forced to play the subordinate all through the most brilliant part of his variegated life of adventure it was only for a moment at Cadiz or Fayal that by a doubtful breach of prerogative he struggled to the surface to sink again directly the achievement was accomplished this soured and would probably have paralyzed him but for the noble stimulant of misfortune and to the temper which this continued disappointment produced we must look for the cause of his unpopularity it is difficult as we have said to understand how it was that he had the opportunity to become unpopular from one of his latest letters in Elizabeth's reign we gather that the tavern keepers throughout the country considered raleigh at fault for attacks which was really insisted on by the Queen's rapacity to raise Cecil to induce Elizabeth to remit it for he says I cannot live nor show my face out of my doors without it nor dare ride through the towns where these taverners dwell this is the only passage which I can find in his published correspondence which accounts in any degree for the fact that we presently find raleigh the question the best hated man in England End of chapter 6