<108>To understand the causes of the displeasure of the Spanish Government, it is necessary to go back to the time when, March 29.Raleigh leaves London.more than a year before, Raleigh was setting out on his voyage. On March 29, 1617, he left London to join his ship at Dover, from whence he made the best of his way to Plymouth. Already, as he lay in that fair harbour, where the sloping woods and the rocky shores must have been fraught for him with memories of happier days, the shadows were falling thickly upon him. One of his captains, Sir Warham St. Leger, had been detained in the Downs by an accident to his vessel. His vice-admiral, Pennington, one of the most promising seamen of the day, had been stopped off the Isle of Wight for want of money, and had been unable to persuade the bakers to supply his ship with bread for the voyage. In despair, he had ridden up to London to appeal for help to Lady Raleigh. Poor Lady Raleigh had no money to give him; but she wrote to a friend at Portsmouth, who advanced the requisite 30l. to enable him to provision his ship. Two others of Raleigh’s captains were in similar difficulties, and it was only by selling his plate that he was able to provide for their necessities.[182]
There can have been few in England who had much hope of Raleigh’s success. If he himself did not despair, it was only because he was determined that, whatever means he was <109>driven to use, he would not fail. As he was passing the Isle of Wight His negotiations with Montmorency.he was joined by Faige, the emissary whom he had despatched to Montmorency, and he immediately sent him back to France to complete the arrangements with which he had been charged.[183] Faige returned to him at Plymouth, bringing a letter from Montmorency, by which the Admiral of France bound himself to do his best to obtain from the King permission for him to put into a French port on his return with his ships and men, together with any goods which he might have acquired by trade or otherwise.[184]
Since Raleigh had left London, an event had occurred in Paris which served to raise his hopes of receiving assistance from the French Government. Murder of Ancre.Louis had long borne with equanimity his exclusion from power by his mother and his mother’s favourite Concini, who was now known as the Marshal of Ancre. His nature was singularly sluggish, and he loved better to amuse himself with his dogs and his falcons than to trouble himself with affairs of state. But there were others who were not equally resigned to insignificance. Luynes, the page who kept his hawks, and Vitry, the captain of his guard, hated Ancre as a rival, and they had little difficulty in obtaining from their master an order for the assassination of a man whom he was unable, king as he was, to reach in any other way. The upstart Italian was, accordingly, cut down in the streets of Paris, amidst the plaudits of the whole nation.
The cry of exultation which was raised in France was echoed in all Protestant lands.[185] The Queen-Mother had always been regarded as the chief supporter of the Spanish party. Even James was carried away by the tide, and for once found himself giving expression to opinions in complete accordance with those of Winwood and Raleigh. No doubt their reasons <110>were very different. James wrote to congratulate the young sovereign of France, because he had released himself — no matter by what means — from the domination of a subject.[186] Raleigh wrote to congratulate the French statesmen who were his friends, because he hoped that France had, once for all, shaken off the yoke of Spain.[187] With grim facetiousness, Winwood sent his congratulations to Gondomar, upon the happy change which had taken place in France.[188]
The letter in which Raleigh expressed his joy at Ancre’s murder was carried by Faige,[189] who took with him another French seaman, named Belle, Faige returns to France.who was equally in Raleigh’s confidence. They were to take charge of four French vessels which were fitting out at Havre and Dieppe, and to follow the English squadron to the mouth of the Orinoco.[190]
<111>As usual, Raleigh had not chosen his confidants wisely. Faige and Belle had no thought of executing his orders. They seem to have preferred the chances of a commercial voyage in the Mediterranean to the risk of hard blows in the Indies.[191] They did not gain much by the change. The vessel in which they sailed was taken by pirates. Faige, landing at Genoa without a penny, soon found himself within the walls of a debtor’s prison. Belle made his way to Rome. He unbosomed himself The plan betrayed to the Spaniards.to his confessor, and was, at his own request, sent to Madrid to tell his story there.[192] Raleigh, he said, intended to commence by an examination of the mine; after which, if it proved to be of any value, he was to attack Trinidad and Margarita. As soon as he had done what damage he could by sea and land, he would return to Europe for reinforcements.[193] The Spanish Government <112>listened to his tale, took from him what papers he had, and tossed him a hundred ducats to pay his expenses back to Dieppe.[194]
What may have been the exact scheme which had taken possession of Raleigh’s mind, it is of course impossible to say. Raleigh’s intentions.Belle may have exaggerated what he heard, or Raleigh, as his wont was, may have flung about his words at random. Raleigh’s own account of the matter, given at a time when he was no longer able to conceal that he had sailed with the intention of breaking his promise to James, was that he intended to use the Frenchmen in an attack upon San Thomé, whilst he was himself making the best of his way to the mine.[195] But that the purpose of attacking Trinidad and Margarita was at least floating in his head, is probable enough. That the discovery of the mine, if it was to be of any use, <113>would ultimately lead to war with Spain, no man knew better than Raleigh; and it was to the mine that he looked for the golden key which would enable him to open the way to James’s favour. The idea that it was possible to establish a peaceable colony around a gold mine in the centre of the Spanish Indies, was, as he knew perfectly well, the veriest hallucination that had ever crossed a madman’s brain. Yet it was to this foolish and impracticable plan that he was pledged by the most solemn promises to confine himself. He must look to success alone to redeem the pledges by which he was bound. If, as soon as he had found the mine, he could strike a blow which would weaken the hold of Spain upon the whole district of the Orinoco, he would be able, upon his return, to present to England or to France — it hardly mattered to which — the attractive bait of a golden treasure, the guardians of which had been already overpowered.
With a mind full of anxiety for the future, Raleigh prepared for sea.[196] On June 12 his little squadron of fourteen vessels Raleigh leaves Plymouth.set sail from Plymouth. Disaster attended him from the first. The winds were contrary, and he was forced to seek for shelter in Falmouth harbour. Again he put to sea, and again the storm swept down upon his course. One of his vessels sank before his eyes. He is driven into Cork.Another was driven for refuge to Bristol. With the shattered remnants of his fleet he found safety in the harbour of Cork. It was not till August 19 that he was once more ready to venture upon the Atlantic.
On September 7, the fleet cast anchor at Lanzarote, one of the Canaries. The Spanish governor, who had, no doubt, been His proceedings at the Canaries.warned of Raleigh’s approach, regarded him with suspicion. He withdrew his troops to the interior of the island, and refused to furnish the English with the provisions of which they were much in need. Two of Raleigh’s sailors, wandering about the island, fell in with the Spanish sentinels, and lost their lives in attempting to drive <114>them from their post. It was not without difficulty that Raleigh prevented his crews from marching in a body to revenge their comrades. Being unable to conciliate the governor, he sailed away for the Grand Canary, where he met with an equally inhospitable reception. Not only was permission to buy provisions refused, but an attack was made upon his men as they were filling their water-casks on the beach. At Gomera, Raleigh was more successful. He persuaded the governor that he was not a pirate, and was allowed to take in fresh provisions and water in peace.[197]
Annoyances of this kind were nothing more than the ordinary difficulties which such men as Raleigh were accustomed to expect. Desertion of Bailey.The insubordination which manifested itself in his fleet was a very different matter. He had long known how terribly the policy of James had told upon the discipline of his crews. He now learned that the infection had spread to the officers. One of his commanders, Captain Bailey, had captured some small French vessels before arriving at the Canaries, and wished to detain them on the plea that part of their cargoes was the produce of piracy. Raleigh told him that, even if this were the case, the Frenchmen were justified by the doctrine of ‘No peace beyond the line.’[198] At this Bailey took offence, and, slipping away from the fleet, made the best of his way to England. On his arrival, he gave out that Raleigh was going to turn pirate, and was perhaps meditating high treason itself. If Gondomar is to be believed, Raleigh had written to the Earl of Southampton a letter from the Canaries which showed that it had not been without some struggle with himself that he had gone on his way peacefully. He had resolved, he wrote, with the help of the French vessels which he had overtaken, to await the arrival of the Spanish treasure fleet. Southampton appears to have published the <115>news which he had thus received, and the feeling of satisfaction aroused by the prospect of a telling blow being struck at Spain was very general.[199] Bailey was immediately summoned before the Council, and committed to prison for traducing his commander. He was only liberated, after an imprisonment of seven weeks, upon making a humble acknowledgment of his offence.[200] Here, at least, no traces are to be found of that settled design to ruin Raleigh which is sometimes attributed to the Government.
It seemed as if the elements were leagued against the ill-fated squadron. Raleigh made for the Cape de Verde Islands, Sufferings on the voyage.intending to replenish his empty water-casks. He had not cast anchor many hours before a hurricane swept down upon him in the darkness of the night. The cables parted, and, with imminent risk of shipwreck, the whole fleet was driven out to sea. It was in vain that Raleigh attempted to regain the anchorage. The storm continued to rage, and, with a heavy heart, he gave orders to steer for the coast of Guiana. According to all ordinary calculations, it was a passage of fifteen, or, at the most, of twenty days; but in this voyage all ordinary calculations were at fault. For forty days, calms and contrary winds detained him upon the Atlantic. The tropical rains came plashing down through the sultry air. Water was running short, and the want of fresh provisions was severely felt. Sickness was raging amongst the crews, and scarcely a day passed in which Raleigh had not to chronicle, in the sad diary which he kept,[201] the death of some one of those whom he valued most. One day he was grieving over the loss of his principal refiner, upon whose services he had counted. Then it was one of his cousins who was gone. In a single day five corpses were cast overboard, and amongst them those of Captain Pigott, who was to have been second in command of the land forces, and of John Talbot, who had lived with him during the whole <116>of his imprisonment in the Tower, and who was, as it stands recorded in the diary, “an excellent general scholar, and a faithful, true man as ever lived.” Three days afterwards another of his captains died. Next it was his cousin Peyton. So the list is lengthened, including only those names which were held by the writer in special remembrance, and passing by the forgotten misery of the nameless mariners who were never again to see their English homes, and whose bones are resting beneath the broad Atlantic.
At last Raleigh himself was struck down by fever. For ten days he was lying in his cot, tossing restlessly in his pain, and eating nothing Raleigh’s illness.except now and then a stewed prune. When at last the joyful cry of “Land!” was heard, the admiral was unable to come upon deck to gaze upon the coast on which all his hopes were fixed. It would have been well for him if he had found a sailor’s grave within sight of the shores which he longed so earnestly to reach.
Raleigh had struck the coast near the mouth of the Oyapok. As soon as the anchor touched the ground, he sent a boat to inquire for his old Indian servant, Leonard, who had once lived with him in England for three or four years. After his return home Leonard had not forgotten his master. Raleigh notes that he had cared for ‘Mr. Harcourt’s brother and fifty of his men when they came upon that coast and were in extreme distress, having neither meat to carry them home, nor means to live there but by the help of this Indian, whom they made believe that they were my men.’[202] Such was the spell which Raleigh’s name still exercised in Guiana. But Leonard was not to be found, and the squadron stood away for the mouth of the Cayenne in search of a better anchorage.
From the Cayenne, Raleigh wrote to his wife by one of his captains who was returning. He was beginning to see that he had and in the Cayenne.undertaken the voyage on conditions which made success almost impossible. Forty-two of his men, he said, had died upon the voyage, and the rest were mutinous and discontented. The future was very dark. No doubt Gondomar had warned his master, and it was not unlikely that the Orinoco <117>was already fortified. Yet, come what might, he would not flinch. “We can make the adventure,” he wrote, “and if we perish it shall be no honour for England, nor gain for his Majesty, to lose among many others, one hundred as valiant gentlemen as England hath in it. Remember my services,” he added, “to Lord Carew and Mr. Secretary Winwood. I write not to them, for I can write of nought but miseries.” Yet there was one bright gleam of sunshine amidst the clouds. Here, too, the Indians had not forgotten the one white man who had treated them like brothers. “To tell you,” he said, “that I might be King of the Indians were but vanity. But my name hath still lived among them here. They feed me with fresh meat, and all that the country yields.”[203]
As Raleigh looked on his men, he must have felt that their temper was not such as to warrant He prepares for his ascent of the Orinoco.high hopes of success. On the passage out he had done his best to encourage them, not always wisely. He had told them that, if the mine failed, they had the Mexico fleet to <118>fall back upon.[204] Such exhortations had proved but a poor substitute for the stern, self-denying sense of duty by which the vilest natures are sometimes overawed.
For the present, at least, he had nobler work to do. As soon as he was able to move, he put off for the Triangle Isles,[205] to complete his preparations. Of the ten vessels which remained to him after the accidents of the voyage, five only were of sufficiently light draught to pass the shoals at the mouth of the Orinoco. In these he placed one hundred and fifty sailors, and two hundred and fifty fighting men. If he had been able to take the command in person, all might yet have gone well; but the fever had left him very weak, and he was still unable to walk. Even if he had been in perfect health, there was another obstacle in the way. His followers had been ready enough to grumble at him; but when the time of trial came, they knew well enough what his value was. The officers who had been told off for the service flocked round him, and with one voice declared that, unless he remained behind, they would refuse to go. A Spanish fleet might be upon them at any moment, and Raleigh was the only man who could be trusted not to take flight at the approach of danger. They could place confidence in his word, and in his alone, that he would not <119>expose them to certain destruction by leaving the entrance to the river open. Raleigh gave them the promise they required. He assured them that, if the enemy arrived, he would fight to the last; but that he would never desert his post.[206]
On this condition they agreed to go; but who was to take Raleigh’s place in command of the expedition? Pigott had died on the passage, and He is left at the mouth of the river.St. Leger was lying sick on board his ship. Keymis was therefore entrusted with the general supervision of the force. He knew the country well, and he was the only man there who had set eyes upon the spot where the mine was supposed to be. He was brave and faithful; but there his qualifications ended. Intelligence, forethought, and rapidity of decision were wanting to him.
The land forces were placed under the command of George Raleigh, a nephew of the Admiral. He was a young man of spirit, and that was all that could be said in his favour. Under him served, at the head of a company, Raleigh’s eldest son, Walter, whose life was more precious to his father than all the gold in America.
Whatever else may have been in Raleigh’s mind, there was no thought of paying the slightest attention to his promise to the King. His instructions to Keymis.In considering what was to be done, there had been some talk about an attack upon the Spanish town as a preliminary to the search for the mine;[207] for the woods, as Raleigh knew, were thick, and he hesitated to entangle his men amongst them, lest they should be cut off by the Spaniards before they could regain their boats. “It would be well,” said Raleigh, “to take the town at once.” “But,” replied one of those who were standing by, “that will break the peace.” “I have order, by word of mouth from the King and Council,” answered Raleigh, audaciously, <120>‘to take the town if it is any hindrance to the digging of the mine.’[208]
At last, however, he decided against this plan, and gave directions that when the expedition drew near the mine, Keymis should take with him six or seven men to explore the ground, leaving the rest of his companions some little distance lower down. Scarcely, however, had the flotilla started, when Raleigh changed his mind, and sent a letter after Keymis. Some Indian might be lurking on the bank, and seeing a boatload of Englishmen land, might carry the news to the Spaniards. Before they could return from the mine, the enemy would have time to cut them off from the river. It would therefore be more prudent to take the whole number to the landing-place. From that point the mine was only three miles distant. It would be easy to post the soldiers in advance, so as to guard the road. If the mine proved not so rich as was expected, Keymis was to bring away a basket or two of ore, as proof of its actual existence. But if, as was hoped, gold were discovered in abundance, the troops were to remain at their post to guard the working party from aggression. If they were attacked by the Spaniards, ‘then,’ he wrote, ‘let the Sergeant-Major repel them, if it be in his power, and drive them as far as he can.’
One contingency remained to be provided for. A rumour had reached him in the Cayenne, that a large Spanish force had already made its way up the river. For this case his instructions to Keymis were clear. “If,” he continued, “without manifest peril of my son, yourself, and other captains, you cannot pass toward the mine, then be well advised how you land. For I know” — and we can fancy how the fire flashed from his eyes as he wrote the words — “I know, a few gentlemen excepted, what a scum of men you have, and I would not for all the world receive a blow from the Spaniard to the dishonour of our nation. I, myself, for my weakness, cannot be present, neither will the company land except I stay with the ships, the galleons of Spain being daily expected. Pigott, the sergeant-major, is dead; Sir Warham, my lieutenant, without hope of life; and my nephew, <121>your serjeant-major now, but a young man. It is, therefore, on your judgment that I rely, whom I trust God will direct for the best. Let me hear from you as soon as you can. You shall find me at Punto Gallo, dead or alive; and if you and not my ships there, yet you shall find their ashes. For I will fire with the galleons, if it come to extremity; but run away I will never.”[209] Braver words it was impossible to utter. Wiser instructions than these last it was impossible to frame, unless he had been prepared to think his promise to the King was worth keeping at the risk of the overthrow of the enterprise. One thing alone was wanting. He could not put his own head upon Keymis’s shoulders. The crisis of his fortunes had come, and he had to stand aside whilst the stake upon which his life and his honour were set was being played for by rough sailors and beardless boys.
For three weeks Keymis and his followers struggled against the current of the Orinoco. Two out of his five vessels ran aground upon a shoal. 1618.The expedition up the Orinoco.But on the morning of January 2, the remaining three had passed the head of the delta. The wind was favourable, and the weary crews might hope that either that evening, or the following morning, they would reach the place from whence a walk of a few miles would bring them to the golden mine, for the sake of which they had risked their lives.
It was mid-day when a sight met their eyes by which they must have been entirely disconcerted; for there, upon the river-bank The new San Thomè seen,in front of them, a cluster of huts appeared. A new San Thomè, as they afterwards learned, had risen to break the stillness of the forest. All hope of reaching the mine unobserved was at an end.
It was at such a moment that the want of Raleigh’s presence was sure to be felt most deeply. It was still possible to carry out his instructions in the spirit if not in the letter. The object of the expedition was the mine, not the town. Common sense should have warned Keymis to pass the town <122>on the further side of the river, and to take up a defensive position near the mine.
Instead of this, he came to an anchor about a league below the town, and immediately proceeded to land his men. If he attacked and burnt.intended to attack the place — and he can hardly have taken these measures with any other purpose — he was singularly slack in his movements. At nightfall the three vessels weighed anchor, and steered towards San Thomè, whilst, at the same time, the land troops put themselves in motion in the same direction. Meanwhile the Spanish governor had taken his measures with skill. He had but forty-two men to dispose of, but he had in his favour their thorough knowledge of the locality, and the thickness of the woods through which the English had to force their way. It was about nine o’clock when the first shot was fired upon the vessels. Not long afterwards ten Spaniards sprang out from amongst the trees upon the advancing column.[210] The English <123>were taken by surprise, and, by their own confession, were almost driven into the river. Order, however, was soon restored. Numbers began to tell, and the Spaniards, repulsed at every point, were forced back towards the town. Young Walter Raleigh dashed into the thick of the fight, shouting, in words which were one day to be remembered against his father, “Come on, my men; this is the only mine you will ever find.” The next minute he was struck down, and his followers were crying wildly over his corpse for vengeance. As the English pushed their way into the street, a galling fire was opened upon them firom the houses on either side. At last, in sheer self-defence, they were driven to set fire to the buildings in which the enemy was sheltered. The wooden huts were soon in a blaze, and by one o’clock, the defenders of San Thomè were driven from their homes, to find what refuge they could in the surrounding woods.
When the morning dawned the English discovered that they had not improved Difficulties of the captors.their position by their victory. In a thickly wooded country, the advantage is<124>always on the side of the defence, and it was that advantage which, by their attack upon San Thomè, they had recklessly thrown away. Instead of being able, according to Raleigh’s instructions, to await in a well-chosen position the assault of the enemy, they were now compelled, if the mine was to be reached at all, to make their way through dense woods, in which every tree would afford a shelter to a Spanish marksman. Keymis did his best to execute his orders. At one time he tried to force a passage through the forest. At another time he placed his men in boats, and rowed up the stream to seek for a safer path. Everywhere he met with the same reception. Volleys of musketry, fired by men whom it was impossible to reach, told him, in unmistakable tones, that the great enterprise had failed.
For some days Keymis still lingered at San Thomè. It was hard to be the bearer of such tidings as his to the bereaved father, The retreat from San Thomè.whose son was lying in his bloody grave. But the inevitable retreat could not much longer be delayed. His men were raving like madmen, and cursing him for having led them into such a snare. The mine, they told him, was a pure invention of his own. As he listened to their angry reproaches, he began, unconsciously perhaps, to look about for excuses by which he might shield himself from blame. A new light suddenly broke upon him. After all, what would be the use of reaching the mine? If the gold were found, it would only fall into the hands of the Spaniards. Even if he could preserve it from them, and could bring it safe to England, would it not be immediately confiscated by the King? He was told that the King had granted it to Raleigh under the great seal. His answer was that Raleigh was an attainted man, and that no grant to him was of any force.
Keymis’s determination was probably hastened by some papers which he found at San Thomè, from which he learned that Spanish troops were on their way to the Orinoco. The survivors of the band which, less than three weeks before, had come up the river full of hope, hurried on board the vessels, with failure written on their foreheads. From that moment <125>nothing could stop them in their eager haste to regain the sea. It was in vain that Keymis, whose heart was sinking at the prospect of meeting the master whom he had ruined, pointed out a spot from whence, as he told them, the mine might yet be reached. It was equally in vain that a friendly Indian chief sent to invite them to another mine far from any Spanish settlement. They pushed on, heedless of such enticements, till they caught sight of the admiral’s topmasts in the gulf of Paria.
The news of the disaster did not come upon Raleigh at a single blow. First a stray Indian had brought a rumour of the capture of San Thomè.[211] Raleigh hears the news.Then had followed a letter from Keymis, with the bitter tidings of his son’s death. At last the whole truth was before him. The great adventure was a total failure, and he must go back, if he went back at all, a discredited and ruined man.
Before Raleigh could decide what to do, a new tragedy came to shatter afresh his already shaken nerves. When Keymis Suicide of Keymis.came on board to make his report, he had received him kindly, as an old comrade should. But it was not in the nature of things that he should be satisfied with the story which he had to tell. If Keymis had been content to plead the simple truth, to acknowledge his error in attacking the town, and to lay stress upon the impracticability of forcing a passage through the woods, it is possible that <126>Raleigh would have allowed himself to be convinced. But when he said that, after young Raleigh’s death, there was no reason why he should take the trouble to look any further for the mine, in order to enrich such a crew of rascals as he had around him; and that Raleigh being without a pardon, he would be none the better for the discovery of the gold, he was clearly talking nonsense. The man who had everything to lose by the failure saw at a glance that a basketful of ore, by which his sincerity might be proved, would have been worth everything to him. Knowing this as he did, he turned savagely upon Keymis. “It is for you,” he said, “to satisfy the King, since you have chosen to take your own way: I cannot do it.”
Keymis listened to the bitter words, and turned away sadly. A day or two afterwards he came back with a letter to Lord Arundel in his hand, which he entreated Raleigh to read. Raleigh refused to look at it. “You have undone me,” he said, “by your obstinacy, and I will not favour or colour in any sort your former folly.” Keymis asked if this was his final resolution. Raleigh answered that it was, and his downcast follower left the cabin, saying as he went, “I know not, then, what course to take.”
The old sailor knew that he had lost his master’s respect. How he had lost it was not so clear to him. Not long after he had gone, the report of a pistol was heard. Raleigh, asking what it meant, was told that Keymis had fired the shot to clean his arms. Half an hour afterwards, a boy going into his cabin found him lying dead, with a long knife driven into his heart. The pistol had inflicted but a slight wound; but the sturdy mariner, who had faced death in a thousand forms, could not bear to look again upon his commander’s angry face.
Raleigh himself was well-nigh distracted. With nothing but blank despair before him, his first thought was to make a fresh attempt upon the mine. If Keymis had failed to reach it, he had at least discovered fresh evidence of its reality. Two ingots of gold had been brought from San Thomè, and papers had been found in which there was mention <127>of mines existing in the neighbourhood. If Raleigh could do nothing else, he could lay his bones by the side of his son.[212]
From this desperate proposal his followers shrank. Their necks were in no danger at home, and they had no wish to expose themselves to almost certain destruction for the sake of a mine of the very existence of which they were by this time thoroughly incredulous. The Spanish war-ships would be upon them before long, and the sooner they left the mouth of the Orinoco the better. One more plan was submitted to them by Raleigh before he gave orders for weighing anchor. He had long before told them that if disaster should come it might be retrieved by an attack upon the Mexico fleet. The evil which he had foreboded was now before his eyes; and he asked his captains whether they would be ready to join him in the attempt. In his eyes such an undertaking was perfectly legitimate.[213] There was no peace beyond the line; and why should not the Spaniards pay for the injury which they had inflicted upon his men, who had been shot down like dogs in what he was pleased to call the English territory of Guiana? If Faige had been false to him, and if the four French ships upon which he had counted had failed him, might not something be done even with the forces which still remained? His captains do not seem to have rejected the idea positively at first. One who was present at the consultation asked, “What shall we be the better? For, when we come home, the King will have what we have gotten, and we shall be hanged.” “We shall not need to fear that,” was Raleigh’s answer, “for I have a French commission, by which it is lawful to take any <128>beyond the Canaries.” “And I have another,” said Sir John Fern, “and by that we may go and lie under Brest or Belleisle, and with one part thereof satisfy France, and with another procure our peace with England.”[214]
<129>Upon this scene the curtain drops. We only know that the proposal came to nothing. When Raleigh is next heard of Raleigh at St. Christopher’s.he was at St Christopher’s. Officers and crews were alike becoming unmanageable. “Whitney … for whom,” he wrote to his wife, “I sold all my plate at Plymouth, and to whom I gave more credit and countenance than to all the captains of my fleet, ran from me at Granada, and Wollaston with him.[215] So as I have now but five ships, and one of those I have sent home, and in my fly-boat a rabble of idle rascals, which I know will not spare to wound me; but I care not. I am sure there is never a base slave in all the fleet hath taken the pains and care that I have done — that hath slept so little, and travailed so much.” “These men,” he had written the day before to Winwood, “will wrong me all they can. I beseech your honour that the scum of men may not be believed of me, who have taken more pains, and suffered more than the meanest rascal in the ship. These being gone, I shall be able to keep the sea until the end of August, with some four reasonable good ships.” What did he intend to do? We cannot tell. Probably he could not tell himself. <130>“My brains are broken,” he wrote to his wife, “and it is a torment to me to write, especially of misery.”[216]
Raleigh is next heard of at Newfoundland. But if he still cherished hopes of retrieving his ill-success, he was not long in discovering that His return.he must abandon them for ever. His crews refused to follow him, and he was forced to make sail for England. On the voyage home, the poor frightened men mutinied, and compelled him to swear that before he carried his ship into port he would obtain their pardon from the King. Raleigh himself hardly knew what to do. At one time he offered to make his ship over to his men, if they would put him on board a French vessel. In truth, it was but a choice of evils that was before him. As a penniless outcast, he had as little chance of a good reception in Paris as in London. At last, having first put into Kinsale harbour, he persuaded his men to suffer him to steer for Plymouth.[217]
As Raleigh knew, it was no friendly tribunal that he would have to face. During the months which had passed so wearily with him, Gondomar waits for news.Gondomar had been watching for the news which, as he little doubted, would confirm his worst suspicions. He had listened eagerly to the tale of the deserter Bailey, and had urged his Government to lay an embargo upon the property of the English merchants at Seville, till redress was afforded for the alleged hostilities at the Canaries.[218] Then, to his great delight, came news from the Cayenne, telling of discontent amongst the crews, and of <131>the probabilities of failure.[219] Early in May,[220] two vessels arrived with the letters which had been written by Raleigh from St Christopher’s. On the 23rd,[221] Captain North told the King at full length the miserable story, and three or four weeks later the ‘Destiny’ itself cast anchor in Plymouth Sound.[222]
Gondomar lost no time in hurrying to the King to demand satisfaction for the Gondomar demands justice.outrages committed at San Thomè. One of two things, he said, must be done. Either Raleigh must be punished in England, or he must be placed in his hands to be sent as a prisoner to Spain.[223]
James, to all appearance, was ready to comply with his demands. On June 11, he issued a proclamation, inviting June.James’s offers to Spain.all persons who had any evidence to give against Raleigh to present themselves before the Council.[224] The Lord High Admiral gave instructions that the ‘Destiny’ should be seized, in the King’s name, as soon as it <132>made its appearance in English waters.[225] Whether James had acted prudently or not in allowing Raleigh to sail, he had, at all events, taken seriously his assurance that he would do no injury to Spain. Before the fleet left England, James had given Gondomar ‘his faith, his hand, and his word,’ that if Raleigh returned loaded with gold acquired by an attack on the subjects of the King of Spain, he would surrender it all, and would give up ‘the authors of the crime to be hanged in the public square of Madrid.’ He now assured the ambassador that he would be as good as his word. “Not all those,” he said, “who have given security for Raleigh can save him from the gallows.”
At one moment, however, it seemed as if James wished to make excuses for Raleigh. San Thomé, he said, was not inhabited by the Spaniards when he granted Raleigh his commission. Gondomar refused to allow the argument to pass, and brought James to allow that Raleigh had acted as a robber.[226]
On June 19, Gondomar made his complaint to the Council. After hearing what he had to say, Bacon replied, in the name of his colleagues, June 19.Gondomar before the Council.that the excesses of private persons could not be hindered by any king, however just, but that the King of England would give every satisfaction in his power. On June 21, the Council met at Greenwich, June 21.The Council at Greenwich.in James’s presence. James spoke at length of Raleigh’s crime, and declared that it was for his own reputation and that of the whole kingdom that an example should be made of his justice. No one present ventured to plead directly for Raleigh. Some one of the councillors, however, attempted to excite James against Gondomar. The Spanish Ambassador, it was said, had spoken presumptuously to the Council, and had even compromised the King by alleging that he had offered to send Raleigh to be hanged at Madrid, as if England were a mere tributary of Spain. James seemed for a moment to be shaken. “Though <133>I am a peaceful man,” he said, “I know well how to defend my honour.” Buckingham at once struck in. Gondomar, he said, was in the right. He had protested against the expedition before it sailed, and there was nothing strange in the language which he now used. The Council ought to judge of him without passion, remembering what they would wish to be the behaviour of an English ambassador in the like case. James, thus encouraged, spoke out. He asked the councillors whether they would consider it right to go to war with Spain in defence of Raleigh’s mischievous proceedings? Was it not really just to punish those ‘traitors who, under pretence of gold mines, and of treasures to be brought home, and upon other pretexts equally false, had brought him to give his consent to the expedition?’ What he now wished to know was whether they advised him to punish Raleigh or not? Raleigh’s friends were apparently cowed by the threat to call them in question as well as the actual offender, and the answer of Yes! Yes! came promptly from every side.
On the following day Gondomar had another interview with the King. James told him that he had been for two hours June 22.Gondomar’s interview with James.examining witnesses who had been inclined to lay the blame on Keymis, but that he had told them that Raleigh was responsible for all that had been done, as Keymis had acted under his orders. On this Gondomar, who was about almost immediately to leave England, and who, perhaps, thought that he could not expect James to resist, in his absence, the pressure which would be brought to bear upon him, ventured to reply that James could not act as judge in this affair. He had himself given Raleigh his commission, and those who had persuaded him to grant it were still by his side to persuade him to maintain it. Gondomar added, that if he had been governor of Seville or of the Canaries he would have exacted reparation with his own hands. As it was, all that he could say was ‘that Raleigh and his followers were in England, and had not been hanged, and that the councillors who had advised the King to consent to the expedition were still at large.’
Experience had taught Gondomar that he might say almost <134>anything to James, but it seemed now as if he had gone too far. James flew into a passion. Dashing his hat upon the ground, and clutching his hair with his hands, he told Gondomar that this might be justice in Spain, but that it was not so in England, where he reigned. He was not accustomed, nor, unless God forsook him, would he ever be accustomed, to condemn anyone before he heard him, or before he was legally tried, even if the accused person had murdered the Prince of Wales. Gondomar replied, sneeringly, that he was right in saying that what was justice in Spain was not justice in England. If a Spaniard had done to Englishmen what Raleigh had notoriously done to Spaniards, the King of Spain would at once have given orders for his execution. He then cleverly turned the current of James’s thoughts for a moment by showing him an account of Raleigh’s crimes. James acknowledged that they were atrocious, and that punishment should be speedy. He would trust Raleigh’s case ‘to noble gentlemen, and not to the judges.’ Seeing that James had cooled down, Gondomar James offers to give up Raleigh to Spain.returned to the charge. This, he said, was not enough. Would not James send Raleigh to Spain, with ten or twelve of his comrades? James now gave way and promised to propose this method of proceeding to the Council.
On the 24th the Council met to consider this strange proposition. According to Gondomar many Puritans attended the meeting, but June 24.it is likely enough that many, not ordinarily classed as Puritans, would object to the surrender of an Englishman to Spanish vengeance. At all events, a strong opposition to the proposal was manifested. Buckingham, however, spoke warmly in its support, and James broke up the meeting by saying ‘that he was King, and would keep his promise, without following the advice of fools and of designing persons.’
The next day James once more saw Gondomar, and engaged that June 25.James assures Gondomar that he will give up Raleigh.Raleigh should be surrendered, unless Philip expressly asked that he should be hanged in England. On the 26th Buckingham, by James’s orders, wrote Gondomar a letter assuring him that, in one way or the other, justice should be <135>done.[227] It was with small hope of success that Raleigh’s friends at Court now endeavoured to stem the tide. Carew was especially urgent in his behalf. “I may as well hang him,” was the King’s reply, “as deliver him to the King of Spain; and one of these two I must do, it the case be as Gondomar has represented it.” Carew pressed for a more favourable answer. “Why,” said James, “the most thou canst expect is that I should give him a hearing.”[228]
As far as James could carry his wishes into effect, Gondomar’s departure from London on July 15 was a kind of triumphal procession. July 15.Gondomar’s departure.It had often been the practice to gratify the ambassadors of Roman Catholic states, by allowing them to carry with them a few priests, who were liberated from prison on condition that they would engage not to return to England. In honour of Gondomar, every priest in prison was set at liberty at once; and as he rode down to Dover, he was followed by at least a hundred, of whom the greater number had probably already made up their minds to make their way back to England as soon as possible.
But if Gondomar was in high favour with the King, he was not in high favour with the English people. A day or two before he left London, The attack upon the Spanish Embassy.one of his suite, riding carelessly down Chancery Lane, rode over a little boy. The child was more frightened than hurt; but to the angry crowd which gathered in an instant, it was enough that the mischance was attributable to a Spaniard. In a few minutes four or five thousand infuriated Englishmen were rushing along the streets with a fixed determination to tear the unlucky foreigner from his refuge at the Spanish Embassy in the Barbican. Gondomar himself was away, supping with the Earl of Worcester; but his frightened attendants were trembling at the execrations of the mob without, and were waiting amidst crashing windows and splintering doors, for the moment when they might be hurried off to instant death.
<136>Fortunately, when the confusion was at the highest, Chief Justice Montague, accompanied by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, appeared upon the scene. In a moment, the howling crowd was silent, and the work of destruction was arrested. Upon an assurance from Montague that the offender should be put to a legal trial for what he had done, the rioters opened their ranks, that the culprit might be led away unharmed to prison, and then quietly dispersed to their homes. As soon as the disturbance was at an end, the Chief Justice, regardless of his promise, ordered that the Spaniard should be peacefully restored to the Embassy.
The next morning James sent Buckingham to Gondomar to express his regret at the untoward occurrence. In the lofty tone which The King’s excuses.had always served him so well, the ambassador replied that he was personally ready to forgive the offence, but that he could not tell how his master would receive the news.
James had already made the riot an affair of state. The Lord Mayor was ordered to ask Gondomar’s pardon, and was told that Punishment of the offenders.if he did not punish the offenders himself, the King would come in person into the City to see that justice was done. Gondomar now declared himself satisfied, and, before he left England, sent a message to the King, begging him not to deal harshly with the rioters.[229] Three weeks afterwards, James, finding that even the magistrates were inclined to sympathize with the offenders, issued a special commission for the trial of the culprits,[230] seven of whom were sentenced to an imprisonment of six months and a fine of 500l. a-piece.[231] Within a month after the passing of the sentence, however, it was remitted, at the instance of Gondomar’s secretary, Sanchez, who had remained in England as agent for his Government, till a new ambassador should be <137>appointed.[232] On another point Sanchez was able to give satisfactory assurances to his master. The pursuivants, by whom the Catholics were so harshly treated, were ordered to forbear from molesting them, unless authorised by a warrant signed by at least six privy councillors. The King, too, had promised that Lord Sheffield, who, without his knowledge, had sent a priest to execution, should be deprived of his office;[233] a promise which was carried out before many months were over.
Unfortunately for Raleigh, the knowledge that the London mob, which had nearly torn him to pieces fifteen years before, would be June.Raleigh’s arrest.sure to treat him with greater respect now, was not likely to be of much service to him. Soon after his arrival at Plymouth he set out for London; but he had not proceeded farther than Ashburton when he met Sir Lewis Stukely, a cousin of his own, who was Vice-Admiral of Devon, and who was charged with orders to arrest him. Stukely took him back to Plymouth, and having nothing but verbal directions from the King, waited for a formal commission to bring him up to London as a prisoner. During the interval, Raleigh, either being ill in reality, or hoping to gain time by counterfeiting sickness, took to his bed. Under these circumstances, Stukely left him very much to himself, and omitted to take the usual precautions for the safe custody of the prisoner.[234]
With the opportunity, the thought of escape presented itself <138>once more to Raleigh. He had lost all hope of regaining the favour of James. July.He attempts to escape.He commissioned Captain King, the only one of his officers who had remained faithful to the last, to make arrangements with the master of a French vessel lying in the Sound, to assist him in his flight. At nightfall the two slipped out of the house together, and got into a boat. They had not rowed far before Raleigh changed his mind, and ordered King to return. He could not tell what to do. Next day he sent money to the Frenchman, and begged him to wait for another night. Night came, but Raleigh did not stir.
His irresolution was soon brought to an end. Stukely received peremptory orders to take his prisoner to London.[235] As Raleigh passed through Sherborne he pointed out the lands <139>which had once been his, and told the bystanders how they had been August.He is carried up to London.wrongfully taken from him. His fears again took possession of him. At Salisbury he sank so low as to feign illness, in order to gain a little time upon the road. A French quack, named Mannourie, who was employed by Stukely His renewed attempts to escape.to attend upon him, gave him ointment to produce sores wherever it was applied. He was to ill, he said, to travel. It happened that the Court was in the town in the course of the progress, and Digby, as soon as he heard of Raleigh’s condition, obtained for him permission to retire for a few days to his own house, as soon as he was able to reach London. This was exactly what Raleigh wanted. He fancied that escape would now be easy. His first thought was to bribe Stukely to aid him. Upon Stukely’s refusal, he begged King to hurry on to London, and to hire a vessel to wait at Gravesend till he was able to go on board.
The master of the vessel took King’s orders, and immediately gave information of what he knew. The story was told to Sir William St. John, Betrayed to the King.a captain of one of the King’s ships. St. John decided upon riding down to Salisbury to tell James. Before he reached Bagshot, he met Stukely coming up with his prisoner, and acquainted him with his discovery. Stukely told him, in return, of Raleigh’s dealings with himself and Mannourie, and charged him to lay the whole matter before the King.[236]
The next day, Stukely had fresh news to write to Court. La Chesnée, the interpreter of the French Embassy, who had His interview with La Chesnée.had dealings with Raleigh before he sailed, had visited him at Brentford. He had brought a message from Le Clerc, who since Desmarets’ departure had been residing in England as agent for the King of France, offering him a passage on board a French vessel, together with letters of introduction, which would secure him an honourable reception in Paris. Raleigh had thanked him for his kindness, but had told him that he had already provided for his escape.
<140>All this Stukely, who seems to have thought it no shame to act as the spy upon a man who had asked him to betray his trust, Failure of his attempt to escape.communicated to the King. James at once took alarm. A plot with France was a serious matter. He accordingly directed Stukely to counterfeit friendship with Raleigh, to aid his attempt to escape, and only to arrest him at the last moment. By this course, it would seem, he hoped to wheedle Raleigh out of his secret, and perhaps to get possession of papers which would afford evidence of his designs.[237] Raleigh was, therefore, conducted, upon his arrival in London, to his own house in Bread Street. Here he received a visit from Le Clerc, who repeated his former offers. The next morning he got into a boat, accompanied by Stukely and King. As had been pre-arranged, he was arrested at Woolwich, and was at once lodged in the Tower.[238]
From the moment that the Tower-gates closed upon him, Raleigh can have had but little hope. He must have known well that Raleigh’s Apology.his case would not bear the light. He had already done his best to plead his cause before the King. The Apology which he drew up during those miserable days in which he had counterfeited illness at Salisbury was indeed, if it be simply considered as a literary effort, a masterly production. In language which still rings like a clarion, Raleigh hurled his last defiance in the face of Spain. He vindicated the rights of the English Crown to Guiana, and asserted that, had he taken possession of the mine on the Orinoco in spite of all the forces of Spain, he would merely have been doing his duty as a faithful servant of the King of England. His old conviction of the righteousness of <141>his lifelong struggle with Spain glowed in every line; a conviction so strong that he still fancied that it would move even James to approve of his actions in Guiana.
As an appeal to posterity, the Apology has had all, and more than all, the success which it deserved. To James it must have appeared tantamount to a confession of guilt. Utterly unable to deny that, after sailing under an express promise not to meddle with the subjects of the King of Spain, he had sent his men up the Orinoco without any instructions which might lead them to suppose that he thought the fulfilment of his promise worth a moment’s consideration, Raleigh now turned round upon the King, and represented his own dereliction of duty as a high and noble deed. He had been content to play upon James’s weakness by representing his enterprise as innocuous, but he much misunderstood his sovereign’s character if he really thought to win him by proclaiming that he had all along been justified in carrying on war in Guiana.
Yet, how could James exact from Raleigh the penalty of his fault? To impartial persons, it is clear that the King’s own misconduct had Could James condemn him?its full share in bringing about the catastrophe. It was James, who, in order to throw the whole responsibility upon Raleigh, had required from him a promise which, as the slightest consideration would have told him, it was hardly possible for him to keep. He had thought to save himself trouble, and now it was come back upon him with tenfold weight. Out of the difficulty which he had brought upon himself, there was no way by which he could escape with credit. If he pardoned Raleigh, he must not only break off his friendship with Spain, but he must announce to the world that he was himself regardless of his plighted word, and that he was as careless of the rights of other sovereigns as he was tenacious of his own. If he sent Raleigh to the scaffold, he was condemning himself for the part which he had taken, in spite of the warning of Gondomar, in promoting an enterprise which he now bitterly repented.
Such considerations, however, were far enough from the mind of James. Commissioners were appointed — Bacon, Abbot, Worcester, Cæsar, Coke, and Naunton — to examine the <142>charges against the prisoner. That they performed their duties conscientiously A commission appointed to examine Raleigh.there is no reason to doubt. The names are by no means such as to indicate a packed tribunal. Yet, in one important point, they certainly came to a wrong conclusion. Instead of contenting themselves with supposing, as was really the case, that Raleigh was careless whether he broke his promise or not, if he could only reach the mine, and that he was equally indifferent to the means by which he might indemnify himself, if the mine should prove a failure, they adopted the theory that he never intended to go to the mine at all, and that he had sailed with the purpose of at once engaging in a piratical attack upon the colonies and fleets of Spain. No doubt they knew as well as we do, that the evidence required careful sifting before it could be admitted as conclusive. Those who gave it were, for the most part, angry and disappointed men; and Raleigh was at all times a free speaker, whose words could seldom be regarded as an infallible key to his settled purposes. But, in an inquiry for truth, they got no assistance from Raleigh. Whatever else might be true, it was plain that his story at least was false. And as, one by one, admissions were wrung from him which were utterly fatal to his honesty of purpose; as the Commissioners heard one day of his proposal to seize the Mexico fleet, and another day of his underhand dealings with Montmorency, it is hardly to be wondered at that, exasperated by the audacity of his lying, they came to the conclusion that there was not a single word of truth in his assertions, and that his belief in the very existence of the mine was a mere fiction, invented for the purpose of imposing upon his too credulous Sovereign.
On August 17, a week after his committal to the Tower, Raleigh before the Commissioners.Raleigh was brought before the Commissioners for examination, and the investigation thus opened was carried on diligently during the following weeks.[239]
Of these examinations but little has reached us, and it is therefore impossible to say what answers Raleigh made to the <143>charges brought against him. On one point we know that the examiners Inquiry into the French plot.were most anxious for information. The plot with France, of which they had come upon the traces, assumed gigantic proportions in their eyes. La Chesnée was summoned before the Council, and was examined on his visit to Raleigh at Brentford. To the astonishment of his questioners, he replied by a blank denial that he had ever spoken a word to Raleigh on the subject of his escape. Enraged at his mendacity, the Council ordered him into custody.[240] In its anxiety for information, the Government now decided upon setting a spy over Raleigh, who might gain his confidence, and win from him an acknowledgment of the true character of his dealings with the French.
The person selected for this miserable office was Sir Thomas Wilson,[241] the keeper of the State Papers, an old spy of Queen Elizabeth’s. Wilson set as a spy on Raleigh.He felt no repugnance to the occupation, and as soon as he was installed in the Tower, began to ply the prisoner with questions, and to hint to him that by a full confession it might yet be possible to regain the favour of the King. For more than a fortnight Raleigh remained upon his guard. He would admit nothing. When he was pressed to acknowledge that he had spoken words which he was unable to deny, he took refuge in the assertion that it was indeed true that he had used the words, but that he had meant nothing by them. It was thus that he explained away the fact that he had communicated to Stukely La Chesnée’s offer of a passage on board a French vessel. It was true, he said, that he had told Stukely so; but he had not spoken the truth. It had been convenient for him at the time to persuade Stukely that a French vessel was waiting for him in the Thames, and he had invented the falsehood on the spot.[242] About a week later, Raleigh told Wilson the story of his proposal to his captains to seize the Mexico fleet, which was <144>already known by other means to the Government. But it was only to accompany it with the explanation that, although he had laid the scheme before his companions, he had done so merely in the hope of keeping his fleet together, without any intention of carrying it into execution.
Thus did the wretched game of falsehood on both sides drag on, till at last, on September 25, Raleigh, weary of the struggle, September.Raleigh acknowledges his dealings with the French.wrote to the King, acknowledging that he had sailed with a commission from the Admiral of France, and that La Chesnée had, by Le Clerc’s directions, offered to assist him to escape.[243] Upon this La Chesnée was again summoned before the Council, and was no longer able to persist in his transparent falsehoods. Le Clerc was then sent for. He boldly denied having had any dealings with Raleigh whatever. He was told that he would no longer be treated as the minister of the King of France; and, soon afterwards, finding that his presence was useless in England, he left the kingdom.[244]
It would seem that several circumstances relating to Raleigh’s intrigues with the French were brought to the knowledge of the Commissioners; for October.we find him doing his best in his conversations with Wilson to explain away his intercourse with Faige, his having taken into consideration the plan for the surprise of St. Valery, and his listening to the proposal made to him before he left the Tower for seizing the Mexico fleet with the aid of six or seven Rochellese ships.[245]
Raleigh made one last effort to escape, by throwing He charges Winwood and others with complicity.the blame on his supporters. If he had formed a plot for the seizure of the fleet during his last voyage, it was done, he said, at the instigation of Winwood, Pembroke, Edmondes, and others.[246] Winwood’s <145>misdeeds at least were already known, and these disclosures were received with indifference. Raleigh no longer doubted that he must prepare to die. His friends at Court had pleaded his cause in vain. Even the Queen, forgetful, since her quarrel with Somerset, of her old friendship with Spain, had, without success, urged Buckingham to interfere in his favour.[247]
If Raleigh’s execution was still delayed, it was because there were legal difficulties in the way. An answer having by this time been The King of Spain wishes Raleigh to be executed in England.received from Philip, declining to accept James’s offer to hand over Raleigh for execution in Spain,[248] it was necessary to consider how he was to be punished in England. James had fallen back on his original contention, that Raleigh could not be executed without a trial of some sort, but he was informed that as the prisoner was already under sentence of death, his existence for legal purposes was at an end, and that no Court now could legally try him.
James therefore applied to the Commissioners to know what course it would be best for him to take. Their reply began by repeating that Oct. 18.The report of the Commissioners.Raleigh could not be tried for any offence which he had committed as an attainted man. It was, therefore, necessary, if he was to be executed at all, that he should be executed upon his former sentence. It would not be illegal to send him to the scaffold upon a simple warrant to the Lieutenant of the Tower. But if this were done, it would be well that a narrative should be published, setting forth the offences for which he was in reality to die. The Commissioners evidently felt that if, as a matter of legal formality, Raleigh was to be put to death for his alleged intrigue with Spain in 1603, it should They propose an informal trial before the Council.at all events be made plain that this was nothing more than a legal formality. But there can be little doubt that, in their hearts, they preferred the alternative which they next suggested, namely, that, as far as the law would permit, Raleigh should have the <146>advantage of a public trial. He was to be called before the Council, which was on this occasion to be reinforced by the addition of some of the Judges. The doors were to be thrown open to certain noblemen and gentlemen who were to be summoned as witnesses of the proceedings. After the necessity of this unusual form of trial had been explained, the lawyers were to open the case, and the examinations were to be read, just as would have been done in Westminster Hall. Raleigh was to be heard in his own defence; and that there might be no repetition of the unfair treatment which he had received at Winchester, the witnesses against him were to be produced in open court. Although no sentence could be formally recorded, the Councillors and the Judges were to give their opinions whether there was sufficient ground to authorise the King in putting the law in force against the prisoner.[249]
The recommendation of the Commissioners shows that they at least, after full examination of the evidence, were sufficiently convinced of the strength of the case against Raleigh to be willing to expose it to his attack in the full light of day.[250] James was more easily frightened. He could not indeed bear to send Raleigh to the scaffold without hearing him in his own defence. But James rejects their proposal.neither was he willing to allow him to plead his cause before an interested, and probably a sympathetic, audience. He remembered how, in his trial at Winchester he had, ‘by his wit, turned the hatred of men into compassion of him.’[251] No wonder that James was alarmed. How could he bear that Raleigh should be permitted to denounce with withering scorn that alliance with Spain which was so dear to his heart. Such words were sure to find a response in the hearts of the spectators; perhaps even in the hearts of his judges. There might be division in the Council; Pembroke, Arundel, and Carew might be found unwilling to condemn the man whom they had favoured. <147>James forgot that the real danger did not so much lie in what Raleigh might say, as in the temper of those who were likely to accept Raleigh’s defiance of Spain as all to which it was needful to listen.[252] Because James had given way too much to Spain when she was in the wrong, he could not venture openly to plead the cause of Spain when she was in the right. He would therefore refuse Raleigh a public trial. He did not see that the danger into which he was running was greater than that which he avoided — that a people excited against Spain by his attempt to draw the two countries into close alliance by the bonds of marriage, would be certain to cherish the conviction that Raleigh had been condemned in secret, merely because his enemies did not dare to condemn him openly.
On October 22, therefore, Raleigh, in place of being brought before even the whole of the Privy Council, was brought once more before Oct. 22.Raleigh before the Commissioners.the limited body of Commissioners. Of what he said to the charges against him the notes which have come down to us are too brief to enable us to judge fully. He persisted in his assertion that he really purposed to attempt the mine, and he denied having intended to bring about war between England and Spain. We also learn that ‘being confronted with captains St. Leger and Pennington,’ he ‘confessed that he proposed the taking of the Mexico fleet if the mine failed.’ Here the condensed record breaks off, and we are left to imagine what was further said on either side. It would seem that Bacon, in the name of the Commissioners, informed Raleigh that he was to die, after pronouncing him to be guilty of abusing the confidence of his own sovereign and of injuring the subjects of the King of Spain.[253]
<148>Accordingly a privy seal was directed to the Justices of the King’s Bench, commanding them to award execution upon the old sentence. James Proceedings in the King’s Bench.seems to have expected that it would be unnecessary for Raleigh to appear in Court. The Judges, however, declared that it was impossible for them to act unless the prisoner was produced, as he must have an opportunity of giving a reason, if he could find one to give, why execution should not be awarded.[254] On October 28, therefore, Raleigh, weak and suffering as he was from an attack of ague, was brought to the bar. Yelverton, in a few brief sentences, demanded the execution of the Winchester judgment. Raleigh, when called upon to say what he could for himself, advanced the argument that the Winchester judgment was virtually discharged by the commission which had entrusted him with the power of life and death over others. He then began to speak of his late voyage. But he was immediately interrupted by the Chief Justice, who told him that he was not called in question for his voyage, but for the treason which he had committed in 1603. Unless he could produce an express pardon from the King, no argument that he could use would be admissible. Raleigh answered that, if that were the case, he had nothing to do but to throw himself upon the King’s mercy. He believed that most of those who were present knew what the Winchester verdict was really worth; and he was sure that the King knew it too. As soon as he had concluded, Montague awarded execution according to law.[255]
James had no intention of granting any further respite. It was in vain that Raleigh begged for a few days to complete some Raleigh prepares to die.writings which he had on hand; he was told that he must prepare for execution on the following morning. As he was to suffer in Palace Yard, he was taken to the Gatehouse at Westminster to pass the night. With the certainty of death he regained the composure to which <149>he had long been a stranger. In the evening, Lady Raleigh came to His last night in the Gatehouse.take her farewell of her husband. Thinking that he might like to know that the last rites would be paid to his remains, she told him that she had obtained permission to dispose of his body. He smiled, and answered, “It is well, Bess, that thou mayest dispose of that dead which thou hadst not always the disposing of when it was alive.”[256] At midnight Oct. 29.she left him, and he lay down to sleep for three or four hours. When he woke he had a long conference with Dr. Townson, the Dean of Westminster, who was surprised at the fearlessness which he exhibited at the prospect of death, and begged him to consider whether it did not proceed from carelessness or vain-glory. Raleigh did his best to disabuse him of this idea, and told him that he was sure that no man who knew and feared God could die with fearlessness and courage, except he were certain of God’s love and favour to him. Reassured by these words, Townson proceeded to administer the Communion to him; after he had received it, he appeared cheerful, and even merry. He spoke of his expectation that he would be able to persuade the world of his innocence. The good Dean was troubled with talk of this kind, and begged him not to speak against the justice of the realm. Raleigh acknowledged that he had been condemned according to the law, but said that, for all that, he must persist in asserting his innocence.
As the hour for his execution approached, Raleigh took his breakfast, and smoked his tobacco as usual. His spirits were excited by He is conducted to the scaffold.the prospect of the scene which was before him. Being asked how he liked the wine which was brought to him, he said that ‘it was good drink, if a man might tarry by it.’ At eight the officers came to fetch him away. As he passed to the scaffold he noticed that one of his friends, who had come to be near him at the last, was unable to push through the throng. “I know not,” he said, “what shift you will make, but I am sure to have a place.” A minute after, catching sight of an old man <150>with a bald head, he asked him whether he wanted anything. “Nothing,” replied the man, “but to see you, and to pray God to have mercy on your soul.” “I thank thee, good friend,” answered Raleigh, “I am sorry I have no better thing to return thee for thy good will; but take this nightcap, for thou hast more need of it now than I.”[257]
As soon as Raleigh mounted the scaffold, he asked leave to address the people. His speech had been carefully prepared. His last speech.Every word he spoke, was, as far as we can judge, literally true; but it was not the whole truth, and it was calculated in many points to produce a false impression on his hearers.[258] On the commission which he had received from the French admiral he was altogether silent, but he was emphatic in repudiating the notion that he had ever received a commission from the French King. He then said that Mannourie had charged him falsely with uttering disloyal speeches, and he protested warmly against the accusations which had been brought against him by Stukely. He spoke of the efforts which it had cost him to induce his men to return <151>to England, and denied having wished to desert his comrades whilst he was lying at the mouth of the Orinoco, waiting for tidings of San Thomè.[259] He then adverted to a foolish tale which had long been current against him, to the effect that at the execution of the Earl of Essex, he had taken his place at a window in order to see him die, and had puffed tobacco at him in derision. The story, he said, was a pure fiction. “And now,” he concluded by saying, “I entreat that you all will join with me in prayer to that Great God of Heaven whom I have so grievously offended, being a man full of all vanity, who has lived a sinful life in such callings as have been most inducing to it; for I have been a soldier, a sailor, and a courtier, which are courses of wickedness and vice; that His Almighty goodness will forgive me; that He will cast away my sins from me, and that He will receive me into everlasting life; so I take my leave of you all, making my peace with God.”[260]
As soon as the preparations were completed, Raleigh turned to the executioner, and asked to see the axe. “I prithee,” said he, The execution.as the man held back, “let me see it; dost thou think that I am afraid of it?” He ran his finger down the edge, saying to himself, “This is sharp medicine, but it is a sound cure for all diseases.” He then knelt down, and laid his head upon the block. Some one objected that he ought to lay his face towards the east: “What matter,” he said, “how the head lie, so the heart be right?” After he had prayed for a little while, he gave the appointed signal; seeing that the headsman was reluctant to do his duty, he called upon him to strike. In two blows the head was severed from the body. His remains were delivered to his wife, and were by her buried in St. Margaret’s at Westminster.
Some verses written by Raleigh the night before his execution were discovered, and were soon passed from hand to hand. <152>They form a strange medley, in which faith and confidence in God Raleigh’s last verses.appear side by side with sarcasms upon the lawyers and the courtiers. It was perhaps at a later hour that he wrote on the fly leaf of his Bible those touching lines in which the higher part of his nature alone is visible:—
“Even such is time that takes on trustOur youth, our joys, and all we have,And pays us but with age and dust;Who in the dark and silent grave,When we have wandered all our ways,Shuts up the story of our days!But from this earth, this grave, this dust,The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.”
“No matter how the head lie, so the heart be right.” Perhaps, after all, no better epitaph could be found to inscribe upon Raleigh’s tomb. General indignation.For him, the child of the sixteenth century, it was still possible to hold truth and falsehood lightly, without sinking into meanness. In his chase after wealth, he was never sordid or covetous. His sins had brought with them their own punishment, a punishment which did not tarry because he was so utterly unconscious of them. Yet it was no mere blindness to his errors which made all England feel that Raleigh’s death was a national dishonour. His countrymen knew that in his wildest enterprises he had always before him the thought of England’s greatness, and that, in his eyes, England’s greatness was indissolubly connected with the truest welfare of all other nations. They knew that his heart was right.
Against the flood of indignation which was strongly setting against him, James in vain attempted to make head. By his directions, The King’s Declaration.Bacon drew up the Declaration,[261] which had been previously suggested by the commissioners. It was founded on the evidence which had been taken, and there is not the smallest reason to suspect that any false statement was intentionally inserted by James or his ministers. But it was unfortunately published at a time when Raleigh <153>had been rendered incapable of criticising its assertions; and in starting from the theory that the mine was a mere figment of Raleigh’s imagination, it left out of sight the fact that he had reason to believe that the mine existed, though he certainly had no conclusive evidence on the point.
To such a pass had James brought himself. Indolently unwilling to make himself master of anything that could be put off till a more convenient season, he had floated down the stream, till it was too late to recover his ground, and till it was impossible to punish an offender without laying himself open to the charge that he had contributed to the offence by his own negligence.
The public indignation, which could not openly be visited upon the King, fell with all its weight upon Stukely. He tried to Fate of Stukely.hold up his head at Court, but not a man would condescend to speak to him. He hurried to James, and offered to take the Sacrament upon the truth of the story which Raleigh had denied upon the scaffold. A bystander drily observed that if the King would order him to be beheaded, and if he would then confirm the truth of his story with an oath, it might perhaps be possible to believe him.[262] Sir Judas Stukely, as men called him, could find no one to listen to him. One day he went to Nottingham, with whom, as Lord High Admiral, his official duties in Devonshire had often brought him in contact, and asked to be allowed to speak to him. The old man turned upon him in an instant. “What?” he said, “thou base fellow! Thou who art reputed the scorn and contempt of men, how darest thou offer thyself into my presence? Were it not in my own house, I would cudgel thee with my staff, for presuming to be so saucy.” Stukely ran off to complain to the King, but even there he met with no redress. “What,” said James, “wouldst thou have me to do? Wouldst thou have me hang him? On my soul, if I should hang all that speak ill of thee, all the trees in the country would not suffice.”[263]
One triumph more was in store for Raleigh’s friends. A <154>few days, after this scene, it was discovered that both Stukely and his son had, for many years, been engaged in the nefarious occupation of clipping coin. It was even said that when his guilt was detected, he was busy tampering with the very gold-pieces — the blood-money, as men called it — which had been paid him as the price of his services in lodging Raleigh in the Tower.[264] The news was received with a shout of exultation, and wishes were freely expressed that he might not be allowed to cheat the gallows.[265] Ready belief was for once accorded to Mannourie, who, being found to be an accomplice in his master’s crime, was trying to purchase immunity for himself by accusing Stukely of having urged him to bring false charges against Raleigh.[266] James, however, thought that he owed something to his tool, and flung him a pardon for his crime.[267] Stukely did not gain much by his escape. He made his way home to his own county of Devon; but it was hardly wise of him to go amongst a people who held the name of Raleigh in more than ordinary reverence. He could not bear the looks of scorn with which his appearance was everywhere greeted. He fled away to hide his shame in the lonely Isle of Lundy, and in less than two years after Raleigh’s execution he died a raving madman amidst the howling of the Atlantic storms.[268]
Many months before the death of Stukely, another man, who had, to some extent, been the cause of Raleigh’s ruin, had passed away from the world. 1619.Death of Cobham.At the time when Raleigh was released from the Tower, in 1617, Cobham was still in prison. His health was giving way; and he petitioned the King to allow him to visit Bath. His request was granted, upon condition that he would engage to return to prison in the autumn. In September he was accordingly making his way back to London, and had reached Odiham, when a paralytic stroke made it impossible for him <155>to continue his journey.[269] In this condition he lingered for more than a year, and it was not till January 24, 1619, that he died. The feeling of detestation with which his memory was regarded, found expression in the fable that he died in complete destitution. For this fable there was no foundation whatever. But it was inconsistent with the popular idea of justice, that any man who had contributed to Raleigh’s misfortunes, should die in ordinary comfort.[270]
[182] Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 117; Edwards, i. 600.
[183] Examination of Belle, March 10⁄20, 1618, Simancas MSS. 2598, fol. 56.
[184] He was to be admitted “avec tous ses ports, navires, equipages, et biens par lui traités ou conquis.” Declaration by Montmorency, April 27⁄May 7, 1617, Simancas MSS. 2598, fol. 64.
[185] In England, a play was written on the subject, which was interdicted by the Government. Collier’s Annals of the Stage, i. 408.
[186] The original holograph letter is in the Bibl. Nationale.
[187] Raleigh to Bisseaux, May 14⁄24 1617, Simancas MSS. 2595, fol. 65.
[188] Salvetti’s News-Letter, April 24⁄May 4, 1617.
[189] Mr. Edwards (ii. 345) asks what became of the answer to this, and how Raleigh’s letter in the original came to be carried to Madrid. He will see that the letter was never delivered, and therefore remained in possession of the bearer.
[190] Compare Raleigh’s letter to Bisseaux, with Belle’s examination, March 10⁄20, Simancas MSS. 2598, fol. 56. In the minutes of Gondomar’s despatches of Oct. 12⁄22, Nov. 5⁄15, the following passage occurs:— “El Conde de Gondomar … ha savido que desde allí,” i.e. the Canaries, “escrivió el dicho Gualtero al Conde de Sutanton que le avia parecido la mejor resolucion de todas, esperar en aquellas islas la flota de España que trae la plata, y que con algunos navies Franceses que se le avian juntado, se hallava tan fuerte que esparava no se escaparia ninguna parte della.” As it stands, this is, of course, inadmissible. No French ships joined Raleigh at the Canaries. But as nothing was known about Faige in London or Madrid at this time, it is hardly likely that it is all pure invention. May not Raleigh have written that, if he were joined by the French ships, he intended to attack the Spanish fleet? Some such plan had been proposed apparently some years before, when James had been requested by the Duke of Rohan to set Raleigh free. Being reminded of this after his return, Raleigh answered, “that for his negotiation with the Prince of Rohan and his brother, he confessed there was a purpose, with seven or eight good ships to be furnished by the French, to set upon the Indian <111>fleet as they came homeward, or else missing it, to pass on to the mine; and he saith that the cause that this succeeded not, was that your Majesty would not let him go to the Prince of Rohan, having denied him before to the King of Denmark, who would have had him for his Admiral.” Wilson to the King, Oct. 4, 1618, S. P. Dom. ciii. 16.
[191] Belle’s statement, that he left Raleigh because he did not like to join a party of Huguenots, is, of course, only to be taken for what it is worth. But I do not see that a flourish of this kind discredits his statements in other respects.
[192] Cardinal Borja to Arostegui, enclosing Belle’s memorial, Nov. 13⁄23, 1617, Simancas MSS. 1866, fol. 191.
[193] “Preguntandole que intencion llevaba Guatterale, y la navegacion que avia de hazer, dixo la costa hasta el rio Orinoco, y reconocer una mina que hay allí cerca de la boca, y aviendo reconocido la sustancia y riqueza que tenia, volverse corriendo la costa la vuelta de la Trinidad y Margarita con intento de tomarlos; haziendo el daño que pudiesse en mar y tierra, y volver á rehacerse de gente y navios para hazer segundo viaje á Orinoco.” Belle’s Examination, March 10⁄20 1618, Simancas MSS. 2598, fol. 56.
Of the genuineness of these papers there cannot be the slightest doubt. The internal evidence is in their favour. They tell much less than a forger would have made them tell. The sentence given above is all that refers to Raleigh’s intentions. Everything of importance is left for Faige to tell by word of mouth. Raleigh’s autograph signature to the letter to De Bisseaux is unmistakable, excepting on the supposition of a skilful forgery, which would have been useless unless these papers were to be made public, which they never were. Besides, Raleigh afterwards, as will be seen, <112>acknowledged having received the letter from Montmorency. It is another question whether Belle told a true story. I incline to think he did, partly because it is in itself probable, and partly because, if he had invented his account, he would have invented something much more stirring. Of course it does not follow that Raleigh may not have been speaking loosely. It is possible to pick holes in every piece of evidence brought in his disfavour. The strength of the case against him lies in the fact that a variety of independent witnesses give evidence which all tends to the same point. Mr. St. John, in his Life of Raleigh, says (ii. 230, note):— “To these pirates Raleigh is said to have intrusted his letters to Montmorency, of which, though they must have delivered them, since answers they said were sent, they yet pretended to possess the originals.” This is, however, a mistake. The only original produced was the one to De Bisseaux, which was never delivered; it is of this particular letter that Belle says, “y esta carta me la ha entregado original.”
[194] Consulta of the Council of State, June 23⁄July 3, 1618, Simancas MSS. 2515, fol. 6. Belle appears not to have asked for any reward beyond the payment of his expenses, which is in his favour. The hundred ducats were only equivalent to 25l.
[195] After his return, Raleigh was reported by Wilson to the King as having said “that his first dealing with Captain Faige was well known to your Majesty.” That is to say, I suppose, his sending him to Montmorency, for permission to take shelter in France, ‘and his last at Plymouth about bringing French ships and men to him to displant the Spaniards at San Thomè, that the English might after pass up to the mine without offence.’ Wilson to the King, Oct. 4, 1618, S. P. Dom. ciii. 16.
[196] Raleigh’s orders have often been quoted as a model of forethought and perspicuity. They show his anxiety not to fight unless attacked by the Spaniards, at least till he reached the Orinoco.
[197] Raleigh’s Diary. Discovery of Guiana, 179. Carew Letters, 134. Memoir of Lorenzo de Torres, Simancas MSS. 2598, fol. 35. An English prisoner taken on the Grand Canary, being asked where Raleigh was going, prudently answered, that he was bound for Virginia, or anywhere else that suited him better.
[198] Raleigh’s Apology, Carew Letters, 129.
[199] Gondomar to Philip III., Oct. 12⁄22, Madrid Palace Library.
[200] Proceedings before the Privy Council, Jan. 11, 1618. Camden Miscellany, vol. v. Carew Letters, 133, 138.
[201] Raleigh’s Diary in Schomburgk’s edition of The Discovery of Guiana, 185–197.
[202] Raleigh’s Diary.
[203] Raleigh to Lady Raleigh, Nov. 14, 1617, Edwards, ii. 347. A favourable account of Raleigh’s prospects went home by Captain Alley, who returned in a Dutch vessel. It was published as “News from Guiana.” Bad rumours too accompanied it, as appears from the following extract:— “Ha llegado aquí ahora á Porsemua un navio que viene de donde está Gualtero Rallé, y dize que en el viaje se le ha muerto mucha gente de la mejor que llevaba, y el maestro de su Capitana; y que assí havia errado el puerto del rio de Arenoco, donde iva á buscar la mina, y se avia entrado en un puerto donde eran tales las corrientes hazia dentro, que podria mal salir dél, que iva ya teniendo gran falta de bastimientos, que la mas de la gente estaba desesperada, y que haviendole dado á este navio algunas cartas para traer aquí, el Rallé las avia despues tomado, y … abrió una de un Cavallero que avisaba aquí á otro amigo suyo la miseria en que estavan, y dezia que, si no se mejoraban las cosas, estaban todos resueltos de hechar al Gualtero Rallé en la mar, y volverse; que el Gualtero Rallé avia querido prender á este Cavallero, mostrandole su carta, y los demas no le avian consentido, y conformanse todos que vienen en este navio en que esperan muy mal suceso de este viaje de Gualtero Rallé, y de los que están con él, y les pareze que si continuan la empresa se perderán ó se harán piratas los que pudieran salir de allí, y este es lo que yo tengo por mas cierto.” Gondomar to Philip III., April 25⁄May 5, 1618, Simancas MSS. 2597, fol. 62.
[204] It is expressly stated in the King’s Declaration that Raleigh spoke of taking the Mexico fleet before as well as after the failure at the mine. In this case, the Declaration is supported by Sir J. Cæsar’s notes of Raleigh’s examination (Lansd. MSS. 142, fol. 396. Camden Miscellany, vol, v.). “And being confronted with Captains St. Leger and Pennington, confesseth, that he proposed the taking of the Mexico fleet if the mine failed.” If a proposal subsequent to the disaster at San Thomè had been meant, it would have been “after the mine failed.” It cannot be said, that these two witnesses are weak ones. In his letter to Winwood (Edwards, ii. 350), Raleigh writes: “The second ship was commanded by my Vice-Admiral Captain John Pennington, of whom, to do him right, I dare say, he is one of the sufficientest gentlemen for the sea that England hath. The third by Sir Warham St. Leger, an exceeding valiant and worthy gentleman.” Nor is it fair to say, as is sometimes done, that Cæsar’s notes are only rough ones. He was an experienced note-taker, always ready whenever any case of interest occurred; and the chance of mistake is diminished to a minimum by his concordance on this point with Bacon.
[205] Now known as the Isles de Salut.
[206] Raleigh’s Diary. Discovery of Guiana, 202. Raleigh to Winwood, March 21, 1618. Raleigh’s Apology. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 106, 124.
[207] The statement to this effect in the Declaration is borne out by Raleigh’s own words in the Address to Lord Carew. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 138.
[208] This stands on the authority of the Declaration, upon which I am quite ready to accept it.
[209] Raleigh to Keymis. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 125.
[210] I have, not without some hesitation, taken my narrative thus far from Fray Simon (Noticias Historiales, 636). It is a story in minute detail, and is evidently founded upon the report of an eye-witness. Its most striking difference from Raleigh’s account consists in this, that whilst the Spaniard represents the English as landing below the town, and deliberately marching to attack it, Raleigh describes them as landing between the mine and the town, and therefore above the town, merely for the purpose of taking a night’s rest, and as being ignorant that the town was so near them as it was. In the first place, it must be remembered that Raleigh had every motive to falsify the narrative, so as to make it appear that his men were not the aggressors. In the second place, his story is improbable in itself. It is most unlikely that Keymis should not have discovered where the town was. We are, however, not left to probabilities, as there exists an independent account of the affair. In a letter written not long afterwards (Discovery of Guiana, ed. Schomburgk), Captain Parker says: “At last we landed within a league of San Thomè, and about one of the clock at night we made the assault, where we lost Captain Raleigh and Captain Cosmor, but Captain Raleigh lost himself with his unadvised daringness, as you shall hear, for I will acquaint you how we were ordered. Captain Cosmor led the forlorn hope with some fifty men; after him I brought up the first division of shot; next brought up Captain Raleigh a division of pikes, who no sooner heard us charged, bnt indiscreetly came from his command to us,” &c. The whole tenor of this presupposes that the English were formed for the attack when they <123>were charged by the Spaniards. Of any surprise whilst resting on the river-bank the writer knows nothing. Nor is there any reference to any such surprise in Keymis’s letter of January 8. Keymis says of young Raleigh, ‘that had not his extraordinary valour and forwardness … led them all on, when some began to pause and recoil shamefully, this action had neither been attempted as it was, nor performed as it is, with this surviving honour.’ This is hardly the language of a man to whom ‘this action’ was a mere accident. In his letter to Carew, Raleigh himself says, “Upon the return I examined the sergeant-major and Keymis why they followed not my last directions for the trial of the mine before the taking of the town; and they answered me that although they durst hardly go to the mine, having a garrison of Spaniards between them and their boats, yet they said they followed those latter directions and did land between the town and the mine, and that the Spaniards, without any manner of parley, set upon them unawares and charged them, calling them perros Ingleses, and by skirmishing with them drew them on to the very entrance of the town, before they knew where they were.” (Edwards, ii. 379.) Now, though Raleigh here states that the Spaniards attacked first, there is nothing really contradictory with Fray Simon’s story. The charge against the Spaniards of having rushed upon the English when quietly resting on the bank was, no doubt, an afterthought. The English were preparing to attack, but the Spaniards actually struck the first blow.
[211] In the Declaration it is said that when Raleigh first heard the news, he proposed to sail away to the Caribbees, leaving his forces in the river to shift for themselves, and the inference drawn from it is, that he intended to attack the Spaniards. Just before his death, however, he declared (Second Testamentary Note; Edwards, ii. 495), “I never had it in my thoughts to go to Trinidado and leave my companies to come after to the Salvage Islands, as hath by Fern been falsely reported.” Looking, however to the extremely sharp practice of his denial of plots with the French in that very paper, I cannot attribute more weight to this statement than that it may very likely be literally true, and that perhaps he did have it in his mind to go to some other island, not Trinidad. But I have not inserted the charge in the text, as, even if it be accepted as generally correct, its value depends very much upon the circumstances under which it was spoken, and the plans which Raleigh may have formed at the same time for the relief of his crews in the river. Besides it would be hard to lay too much stress on words perhaps flung out in a moment of agony.
[212] Raleigh to Winwood, March 21. Raleigh to Lady Raleigh, March 22, 1618. Raleigh’s Apology. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 106, 112, 129.
[213] The language in which Raleigh speaks of the French prize taken off Cape St. Vincent, is the best evidence of his real feeling on this point. His officers urged him to seize it because it was thought that the crew ‘had robbed the Portugals and Spaniards.’ “But,” he says, “because it is lawful for the French to make prize of the Spanish King’s subjects to the South of the Canaries, and to the West of the Azores, and that it did not belong to me to examine the subjects of the French King, I did not suffer my company to take from them any pennyworth of their goods.”
[214] This conversation is taken from the report made by Sir T. Wilson (Sept. 21, 1611, S. P. Dom. xcix. 58). It may be said that Wilson was a spy, and therefore, is not to be believed. Those, however, who will take the trouble to go through Wilson’s reports will, I think, be struck by the internal evidence of their credibility. The mere scraps of information that he is able to give are very meagre. Nor can he have had any object in inventing stories against Raleigh. It cannot be seriously maintained that he wished to deceive the King, who would soon find out the truth or falsehood of these reports. And even those who think that James himself deliberately brought false charges against Raleigh can hardly explain why he should have had them previously inserted in a series of private notes of which no public use was to be made. But it may be asked, how came Raleigh to tell a story so damaging to himself? No doubt, because it had already been brought in evidence against him. He repeated it in order to explain it away. “But,” the note goes on to say, “I had no such commission, but spake it only to keep the fleet together — which else he found apt to part and sail on pirating.”
The question next arises, how far this explanation is to be believed. With respect to the commission, his statement is literally true, and that is all that can be said for it. Montmorency’s letter cannot strictly be called a commission. Yet, in a letter written by Raleigh four days later to the King, of which unfortunately only a Spanish translation has been preserved, he uses these very words: “Viendo que V. Magd. deseava mucho saver la verdad, y me mandava muy estrechamente que le escriviesse todo lo que era, agora por no tener yo á V. Magd, mas suspenso y dudoso de la verdad, viendome en conciencia muy obligado a dar contento á mi Rey y Principe natural, y no á otro alguno, esperando que, como yo he siempre desseado darle en esto satisfacion assí él tendrá compasion de mi dura y cruda condicion, y de mi vejez; yo diré la verdad á V. Magd. Yo tuve una comision de el Duque de Momorancy, Almirante de Francia para yr á la mar, la qual me dió un Frances llamado Faggio, que me dixo que el Embaxador de Francia M. de Maretz me favoresseria con sus cartas para el Duque de Momorancy para el dicho effecto.” Raleigh to the King, Sept. 25, 1618, Simancas MSS. 2597, fol. 62.
As to Raleigh’s explanation of his proposal for attacking the fleet, no reliance can be placed on his mere word. The only external evidence I can find is in a petition by Pennington, written after his return. He says that he came back in great want, ‘without offending any of his Majesty’s laws, though much incited thereunto.’ There remains the test of <129>probability; and, when it is remembered that Raleigh had been, to say the least of it, playing with the idea of attacking the fleet for several months, it seems hardly likely that he did not mean anything serious. Besides, if he could honestly have denied his intention of attacking the fleet, why did he not do so on the scaffold? He there certainly said everything which could be urged in his defence.
[215] Wollaston and Collins “coming lately to the fishing-place,” in Newfoundland, “met there with a French man-of-war, who laying them aboard with intention to have taken them was taken by them, and brought into a harbour, where they put the Frenchmen ashore, and remained with the ship; and that they there understanding of a Flemish ship-of-war riding in a harbour not far off, which had offered some hard measure to the English, went and came to an anchor by her, and after some parley they fell to fighting, and in a short space the Fleming was taken. One Captain Whitney, who was also of Sir W. Raleigh’s company, came now with this fleet to Malaga, loaden with fish from the New-found-land, and is gone with the rest to seek his market.” Cottington to Lake, Oct. 29. S. P. Spain.
[216] Raleigh to Winwood, March 21. Raleigh to Lady Raleigh, March 22, 1618, Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 106, 112.
[217] The statement made by Raleigh on the scaffold has been usually supposed to contradict that in the King’s Declaration. To my mind, they mutually confirm one another. Raleigh does not contradict the story which was afterwards embodied in the Declaration, but only tells another story. Both were, no doubt, true. The same fear of punishment which made the crews anxious to sail for England, rather than engage in an unknown enterprise, would make them shrink from landing in England, without assurance of pardon.
[218] Minutes of Gondomar’s despatches, Oct. 12⁄22, and Nov. 5⁄15, 1617, Simancas MSS. 2514, fol. 89.
[219] Gondomar to Philip III., April 25⁄May 5, 1618, Simancas MSS. 2597, fol. 62.
[220] Contarini to the Doge, May 14⁄24, 1618, Venice MSS.
[221] Camden’s Annals.
[222] Contarini to the Doge, June 11⁄21, Venice MSS. Salvetti’s News-Letter, June 11⁄21, June 25⁄July 5, 1618.
[223] Contarini to the Doge, June 25⁄July 5, July 2⁄12, Venice MSS. Caron to the States-General, July 15⁄, Add. MSS. 17,677, I; fol. 312. Salvetti’s News-Letter, June 25⁄July 5. Not one of these writers says anything of Howel’s story of “Piratas, Piratas, Piratas.” In most of the editions of his letters, the letter in which this anecdote is given is dated about two months before Raleigh’s return. Even if we go back to the first edition, which gives no dates, it is, to say the least of it, strange that two letters should be written just as Howel was starting for the Continent, and that of these, one should give the story of Raleigh’s return, which took place in 1618, and the other should give the story of the execution of the accomplices in Overbury’s murder, which took place in 1615. The story is in contradiction with all that I know of Gondomar’s character. Howel, probably, found it floating about, and placed it in his letters when he was dressing them up in order to sell them.
[224] Proclamation, June 11, Rymer, xvii. 92.
[225] Stukely’s Apology, Raleigh’s Works, viii. 783.
[226] Gondomar to Philip III., June 14⁄24, Madrid Palace Library.
[227] Gondomar to Philip III., July 5⁄15, Madrid Palace Library. Buckingham to Gondomar, June 26, S. P. Spain.
[228] Lorkin to Puckering, June 30, Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 410.
[229] Lorkin to Puckering, July 14, Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 414. Contarini to the Doge, July 23⁄Aug. 2, Venice MSS. Salvetti’s News-Letter, July 26⁄Aug. 5, 1618.
[230] Bacon to Cæsar, Aug. 6, 1618, Letters and Life, vi. 323.
[231] Chamberlain to Carleton, Aug. 13, 1618, S. P. Dom. xcviii. 17.
[232] Contarini to the Doge, Sept. 18⁄28 Venice MSS. Sept. 10, 1618. S. P. Dom. clxxxvii. 59.
[233] Sanchez to Philip III., July 20⁄30, Simancas MSS. 2598, fol. 81.
[234] It is sometimes supposed that Stukely intended to give him a chance of escape, meaning to stop him, in order that he might have an additional charge to bring against him. If so, Stukely must have been a great bungler, as he made no preparations for preventing Raleigh from getting clear off. Nor were the reasons which afterwards induced the King to favour a trick of this kind as yet in existence. Caron’s account of the matter, in all probability, gives the true explanation. Raleigh was sick, or pretended to be so. This would quite account for Stukely’s neglect of him. See Caron to the States-General, July 28⁄Aug. 7, Add. MSS. 17,677, I; fol. 318. Salvetti’s News-Letter, July 2⁄12 1618.
[235] “You have under your charge the person of Sir W. Raleigh, Knt., touching whom and his safe bringing hither before us of his Majesty’s Privy Council, you have received many directions, signifying his Majesty’s pleasure and commandment. Notwithstanding, we find no execution thereof as had becomed you, but vain excuses, unworthy to be offered to his Majesty, or to those of his Council, from whom you received his pleasure.” Council Register, July 25, 1618. Mr. Edwards (Life, i. 654) complains of Bacon as having deliberately inserted a falsehood into the King’s Declaration, by saying “that this first escape to France was made before Stukely’s arrival at Plymouth.” I do not find, however, that Bacon said anything like this. The words are, “For about this time Sir W. Raleigh was come from Ireland into England, into the port of Plymouth, where it was easy to discern with what good will he came thither, by his immediate attempt to escape from thence; for soon after his coming to Plymouth, before he was under guard, he dealt with the owner of a French bark,” &c. Bacon, therefore, does not say that the escape was made before Stukely’s arrival, but before Raleigh was under guard, and though a microscopic objector might say that Raleigh was in some sort under guard from Stukely’s first arrival, yet he was practically left to do pretty much as he liked till the arrival of the order from the Privy Council. The exact date of the attempt must have seemed of little moment to Bacon, if, as I believe, he was arguing against some rumour that the attempt to escape from London was a mere trick of Stukely’s. “Wherein, by the way,” he says of this Plymouth escape, “it appears that it was not a train laid for him by Sir L. Stukely, or any other, to move or tempt him to an escape, but that he had a purpose to fly and escape from his first arrival in England;” and this, as far as I can see, is strictly true.
[236] St. John’s Declaration, Aug. 17, Harl. MSS. 6854, fol. i.
[237] “But why did you not execute your commission barely to his apprehension on him in his house? Why, my commission was to the contrary, to discover his other pretensions, and to seize his secret papers.” Stukely’s Petition, 7. I incline to think this to be the true account. Those who think Raleigh was helped to escape, in order that an additional excuse might be found to hang him, are of course those who resolutely ignore the fact that there was any real ground for proceeding against him already.
[238] Oldys’ Life of Raleigh, in Raleigh’s Works, i. 519. Stukely’s Apology in Raleigh’s Works, viii. 783. The King’s Declaration. Stukely’s Petition, Council Register, Sept. 27. Bacon’s Letters and Life, vi. 354.
[239] Bacon’s Letters and Life, vi. 356.
[240] Declaration of the Council, Sept. 27, Council Register. Chesnée’s examinations are at Simancas; but a translation has been printed in St. John’s Life of Raleigh, i. 303, 313, 323.
[241] The Commissioners to Wilson, Sept. 10, S. P. Dom. xcix. 7.
[242] Wilson’s Notes, Sept. 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, S. P. Dom. xcix. 9, i.
[243] Raleigh to the King, Sept. 25, Simancas MSS. 2597, fol. 62. The letter is quoted in a statement in the Council Register, Sept. 27, and a translation will be found in St. John’s Life of Raleigh, ii. 331.
[244] Statements of the proceedings with Le Clerc, Sept. 27, 1618, Council Register; Finetti Philoxenis.
[245] Wilson to the King, Oct. 4, S. P. Dom. ciii. 16.
[246] Sanchez to Philip III., Sept. 14⁄24, Simancas MSS. 2598, fol. 98.
[247] The Queen to Buckingham, Cayley’s Life of Raleigh, ii. 164.
[248] Aug. 26⁄Sept. 5, Madrid Palace Library.
[249] The Commissioners to the King, Oct. 18, Bacon’s Letters and Life, vi. 361.
[250] This was pointed out by Mr. Spedding, ibid. vi. 362.
[251] The King to the Commissioners, ibid. vi. 363.
[252] According to a news-letter of Feb. 4⁄14, 1618, there had been meetings in the counties of the leading Puritans, as they are styled, to consider whether, if Parliament were called, it would not be well to offer the King the then unheard-of sum of ten subsidies to break off the marriage. — Roman Transcripts, R. O.
[253] Bacon’s Letters and Life, vi. 265. Mr. Spedding has pointed out that in these notes, as printed by me for the Camden Miscellany, vol. v., a date <148>of Aug. 17, which the note-taker, Sir J. Cæsar, had carefully erased, was inadvertently left standing.
[254] Hutton’s Rep. 21.
[255] Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 161.
[256] Townson to Isham, Nov. 9, 1618. Cayley, Life of Raleigh, ii. 176.
[257] Chamberlain to Carleton, Oct. 31. S. P. Dom. ciii. 58. Lorkin to Puckering, Nov. 3. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 420.
[258] The part which relates to the French commission is a marvel of ingenuity. Not a word of it is untrue, but the general impression is completely false. In the MS. copy in the Record Office, it runs thus:—
“I do, therefore, call that great God to witness, before whom I am now presently to appear to render an account of what I say, that as I hope to see God, to live in the world to come, or to have any benefit or comfort by the Passion of my Saviour, that I did never entertain any conspiracy, nor ever had any plot or intelligence with the French King, nor ever had any advice or practice with the French agent, neither did I ever see the French King’s hand or seal, as some have reported I had a commission from him at sea. Neither, as I have a soul to be saved, did I know of the French agent’s coming till I saw him in my gallery, and if ever I knew of his coming or deny the truth, O Lord, I renounce thy mercy!” S. P. Dom. ciii. 53. The copy in Oldys’ Life (Works, i. 558) is to the same effect. In the copy printed in the Works, viii. 775, Raleigh is made to say “I never had any practice with the French King, or his ambassador, or agent, neither had I any intelligence from thence.” The last sentence would mean ‘intelligence from France,’ which would be false. We may fairly give Raleigh the benefit of the doubt between the different reports.
[259] In this, no doubt, he is to be believed. Probably, however, he said something on which the charge was founded. Stukely says that Pennington was the captain who refused to follow him. If so, the story is not likely to be a pure invention.
[260] S. P. Dom. ciii. 53.
[261] Letters and Life, vi. 484.
[262] Lorkin to Puckering, Nov. 3. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 420.
[263] Lorkin to Puckering, Jan. 5. Ibid. fol. 435.
[264] Lorkin to Puckering, Jan. 12. Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 438.
[265] Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 9. S. P. Dom. cv. 7.
[266] Lorkin to Puckering, Feb. (?). Harl. MSS. 7002, fol. 450.
[267] Pardon, Feb. 18. Pat. 16 Jac. I. Part 14.
[268] Camden Annals. Howel to Carew Raleigh, May 5, 1645. Howel’s Letters, ii. 368.
[269] Council Register, May 14, Sept. 28, 1617.
[270] He was allowed by the King 100l. a year, besides 8l. a week for his diet. The payments were made with tolerable regularity to the last, a few weeks after they were due, as appears from the Order Book of the Exchequer, Nov. 7, Dec. 7, 1618, Feb. 6, 1619. The only support I have found for the ordinary story is a letter, in which it is said that Cobham lay unburied for want of money. Wynn to Carleton, Jan. 28. S. P. Dom. cv. 67. This, however, is easily accounted for. The Crown would refuse to pay the funeral expenses, and his relations may have hung back, as wishing to throw the burden upon the King.
I cannot close this chapter without again expressing my deep obligation to Mr. Spedding’s discussion of Raleigh’s conduct. I do not suppose that my story, as it now stands, would have secured his complete approbation, but he would, at all events, have perceived how considerably it had been modified in consequence of his argument.