still only twenty-three, Raleigh had no doubt availed himself of the advantages which it held out to a mind full of ambition and enthusiasm. On the conclusion of the peace in 1576, which secured to the Protestants the free exercise of their religion, he returned to England. It has been supposed by his biographers, that about this time he proved his early predilection for poetry by prefixing some commendatory verses to Gascoigne's satire entitled the Steel Glass; but although written in the quaint style of his age, their poetical merit is below his other pieces, and it is difficult to believe that they flowed from the same sweet vein which produced the answer to Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd. Be this as it may, he allowed himself but a short time for his domestic pleasures, or his recreations with the muses; for soon after quitting France he repaired to the seat of war in the Netherlands, where he served as a volunteer, under the Prince of Orange, against the Spaniards. Fortunately for Raleigh, the condition of this portion of Europe rendered it at that time an instructive school, both for political wisdom and for the military art; so that the rudiments of his education as a statesman and a soldier, which had been received in France, were matured in the Netherlands. In the great contest then maintained, despotic power was arrayed against the rights of conscience. It was the same struggle he had seen carried on in France, in which, under the banner of royal power, devotion to the ancient faith was leagued against the right of private judgment; and in both kingdoms he bore arms on the side of liberty. Elizabeth, under the directions of her able minister Cecil, had early placed herself at the head of the Protestant interests in Europe, and the same principles which led her to support the French Huguenots, and to aim at the extinction of the power of the house of Guise, induced her to thwart the schemes of Philip II. of Spain. The advance of his imperious governor, the Duke of Alva, in the Netherlands, had at first, in 1567, driven the Prince of Orange, a man as illustrious for genius as for ancient lineage, to seek a retreat in his estates in Germany. But the determined spirit of resistance shown by Holland and Zealand drew him from seclusion; and, at the head of a league, by every member of which he was beloved, he organized a resistance against Spain, which, amidst frequent reverses and intolerable oppression, only grew more resolute and decided, till at last, in 1574, it triumphed in the defeat of the ferocious schemes of Alva, and his recall from the government of the Low Countries. Two years after, upon the death of Requesens, who had succeeded the duke, Don John of Austria, natural brother of Philip, was appointed viceroy of the Netherlands. He was a man of much pride, inordinate ambition, and certainly of some genius. But his plans though vast were ill digested, and his imagination greatly outran his judgment. One of his projects, which had come to the ears of Elizabeth, and deeply incensed her against Spain, consisted in a plot to marry the Queen of Scots, and in her right to acquire the sovereignty of the British dominions. It was this, perhaps, which changed the policy of the English queen from concealed encouragement, to an avowed espousal of the cause of the Protestants, and a determined hostility to Spain. The same motives induced her to conclude a treaty with the States of Holland, to advance them a loan of £50,000 and to despatch to their assistance that force of 5000 foot and 1000 horse in which Raleigh now enlisted as a volunteer. The chief command was given to Sir John Norris, one of the most experienced soldiers in Europe, of whom it has been well said, that he was no less remarkable for his safe retreats than for his resolute onsets; whilst his conduct and discipline were so exact, that for a long time his actions were considered precedents, and his orders laws of war.* To serve under such a master could not fail to be of high advantage to any young soldier; and, although there is no direct reference to it in Raleigh's History or in his other works, there can be little doubt * Lloyd's State Worthies, pp. 618, 619. that he shared in that famous action at Rimenant, in which the Spanish army, commanded by Don John of Austria and the Prince of Parma, was overthrown by the forces of the States. The English auxiliaries had been joined by a Scottish force, under Sir Robert Stuart; and the success of the battle is ascribed by De Thou and Lord Bacon to the steady discipline and determined courage of the English and Scots, who, oppressed by a long march and the extreme heat of the weather, stript off their armour and doublets, and fought in their shirts and drawers.* Although thus engaged in war, both in France and in the Netherlands, Raleigh had found leisure to inform himself on those subjects of cosmography and navigation, which at this time engrossed the attention not only of the learned and the adventurous, but of crowned heads and imperial councils. He had studied the histories of the discoveries of Columbus, the conquests of Cortes, and the sanguinary triumphs of Pizarro; and a writer of good authority, who bears the same name, informs us that such books were his especial favourites, and the subjects of his early conversation. Colonel Richard Bingham, his fellow-soldier, amongst other multifarious projects, was occupied with a scheme for the plantation of America. Nor were there wanting, we may believe, in the army in which he served, many others whose society was fitted to encourage his early devotion to such pursuits. It is not surprising, therefore, that the ardent mind of Raleigh should have eagerly embraced an op * Thuani Historia, vol. iii. p. 608, ed. Bulkely. + Richard Bingham was an eccentric and extraordinary soldier of fortune, who had gained experience in the French, Scottish, and Venetian wars. He was a man of wonderfully versatile genius, a great projector," of a fancy high and wild, too desultory and overvoluble," to use the expressive language of a quaint writer he had travelled over most parts of the world; and although it was his fortune rather to be skilful in many mysteries than thriving in any, his conversation and society must have been agreeable to a young man of an enthusiastic turn of mind. portunity of embarking in an adventure of this nature, which offered itself whilst he was in Holland. His stepbrother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had published, in 1576, a treatise concerning a north-west passage to the East Indies, which, although infected with the pedantry of the age, is full of practical sense and judicious argument.* The work appears to have made no inconsiderable impression upon the government; and Sir Humphrey having obtained a patent from the queen to colonize such parts of North America as were not possessed by any of her allies, prevailed with Raleigh to abandon his military pursuits and try his fortune in the voyage. The project, however, failed. Many who had eagerly embarked in it became discontented; all desired an equal share of power; discord bred coldness and desertion; and Sir Humphrey and Raleigh at last found themselves obliged to put to sea with a few friends who disdained to leave them under such adverse circumstances. "When the shipping was in a manner prepared," says Edmond Haies, who was a principal actor in the enterprise," and men ready upon the coast to go aboard, some brake consort and followed courses degenerating from the voyage before pretended, others failed of their promises contracted, and the greater number were dispersed, leaving the general with a few of his assured friends, with whom he adventured to sea, where, having tasted of no less misfortune, he was shortly driven to retire home with the loss of a tall ship."+ On its homeward passage the small squadron of Gilbert was dispersed and disabled by a Spanish fleet, and many of the company were slain; but, perhaps owing to the disastrous issue of the fight, it has been slightly noticed by the English historians. Although unsuccessful, however, in his first voyage, the instructions of Gilbert could not fail to be of service to Raleigh, who at this time was not much above twenty-five, whilst the admiral must have been in the maturity of his age and talent. *Hakluyt has printed it in his third volume, p. 11. + Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 146. Oldys's Life of Raleigh, p. 28. On his return from the American adventure in 1579, a new scene of activity was presented to his enterprising spirit by the rebellion in Ireland. The intrigues of Spain had kindled the flame of civil war in that misgoverned country, and the prospect was not a little alarming. James Fitz-Morris of the Geraldine family, with the Earl of Desmond and his two brothers, had raised the standard of revolt; and soon afterwards three foreign ships, bearing a freight of Spanish and Italian chivalry, arrayed under the papal banner and commanded by San Josepho, arrived at Smerwick in Kerry. Raleigh's military experience now entitled him to promotion, and we find him commanding a company in Ireland. The chief conduct of the war was intrusted to the Earl of Ormond, governor of Munster, who dislodged the foreign troops from the Fort del Ore, in which they had intrenched themselves. It was found, from the testimony of the prisoners, that a scheme for the subjugation of the island had been concerted between Philip of Spain and the Pope; but we may be permitted to suspend our belief in the assertion of Mr George Whetstone, who insists that his holiness had provided a chalice to drink the Queen of England's precious blood as soon as she should be made a sacrifice.* Ormond had not used the precaution of destroying the fort, for which his army was too small to spare a garrison; and this neglect led to its re-occupation by a larger body of the enemy than at that time it would have been prudent to attack. He fell back, accordingly, on the Lord-deputy Arthur Lord Grey, who was stationed at Rakele with a body of 800 horse and foot under Captains Raleigh, Zouch, Denny, and Mackworth; on the strength of which reinforcement he again advanced. On striking their tents, Raleigh, who had observed that so soon as an encampment was abandoned the Irish flocked into it in great crowds, remained behind with his troop, and lay in ambush to receive them. Nor was he de * Whetstone's English Mirror, p. 154. Oldys's Life, p. 31. |