less you (Cecil) make him, (Essex) the less he will be able to harm you and yours; and if her majesty's favor fail him, he will again decline to be a common person;" and concludes, "Let the Queen hold Bothwell (Essex) while she hath him. He will ever be the canker of her estate and safety. I have seen the last of her good days and all ours, after his liberty."*

We are to estimate the conduct of Ralegh in this transaction, both with reference to the imminent danger which the continuance of Essex in power would entail upon him, and the somewhat loose morals and practices of the times in which he lived. The letter from which we have quoted, was written with the view of relieving himself from this danger, and while some of its expressions would appear to justify the opinion that he counselled the death of the Earl, other passages shew with equal clearness, that the object in view could be attained by the displacement of Essex from his offices, and the forfeiture of the Queen's favor, for, once reduced to "a common person," he was no longer to be feared. This construction is strengthened by what Ralegh himself says in his last declaration, made under circumstances of the most solemn character. Referring to this charge, he declares, "It is true I was of an opposite faction, but I take God to witness that I had no hand in his death; but always believed that it would be better for me had his life been preserved; for, after his fall, I got the hatred of those who wished me well before, and those who set me against him, set themselves afterward

* This celebrated letter is given by Tytler in his Biography of Ralegh, p. 190. In connection with it, reference should be had to an extract from Jardine, quoted in a note to the same page.

against me, and were my worst enemies; and my soul hath many times been grieved that I was not nearer to him when he died, as I understood afterward that he asked for me, desiring to be reconciled."*

We have now traced Sir Walter Ralegh to the culminating point of his greatness. From the position of a private gentleman and a volunteer soldier, we have noted his rapid progress from honor to honor, until he fills a conspicuous page in the annals of the period he adorned. Placed in positions which severely try the virtue of men, and surrounded by enemies, who hunted for oportunities to defame him, we have found him worthy and honorable, truthful and just; with no charge substantiated against him, of sufficient weight to lessen admiration or forfeit esteem. This particular juncture is one of the most serious and interesting of his life. A tried and faithful servant, already rewarded in no mean degree by his Queen, whose feelings toward him mingled the impulses of sex with the policy of position; with a powerful enemy, by a melancholy fate, removed from his path, and but one prominent rival left beside the throne; it would be a curious speculation to trace out the probable character and termination of the career thus opening upon whose ambition was unsated by preferments, and whose energies action had matured. In following the severe muse of history, we must exchange the pleasant paths, in which imagination thus exercised would lead us, and pursue those devious and gloomy ways, through which subtlety and hate, conducted him to disgrace and death.

one,

* See Harleyan MSS. Oldys, p. 230.

The first event which seriously affected the destiny of Ralegh, was one of the utmost moment, not only unto him, but to all England. In the seclusion of her palace at Greenwich, that "warm winter box, for the shelter of her old age," Elizabeth was dying. The hand that had swayed the sceptre with such masculine energy, was growing feeble. The mighty spirit. that for four and forty years had comprehended the interests and directed the concerns of a great People, was passing away from earth; and in anguish of mind and torture of body, amid the tears of her waiting ladies, the unconcealed joy of her intriguing Courtiers, and the honest regret of her true subjects, the enfeebled body of the aged Queen bent beneath the sceptre of the king of terrors. In striking accordance with her character, as far as it has been necessary to our subject to portray it, was her last interview with the Councillors, who troubled her closing moments with the question of succession. Cecil, hitherto timid in her presence, and subservient to her lightest whims ; Cecil, whose puling muse could not sufficiently paint the honor which the Queen had done him, when she tied his jewelled miniature to her shoe and kicked it about the room;* Cecil, the "potent pigmy," now, that the hand of Death was visibly upon his mistress, and yearning by one other act of treachery to the dying, to set himself more firmly in the graces of her successor, was bold and peremptory. Her compliance with the wishes of the Council was urged upon her at a moment when it was cruelty, and in a manner which made it insult. "Her throat," says the narrator, "troubling her much, they desired her

* Miss Strickland's Queens of England, p. 219.

to hold up her finger when they named whom she liked, whereupon they named the 'King of France;' (this was to try her intellect,) she never stirred: the 'King of Scotland;' she made no sign: then they named 'the Lord Beauchamp'-this was the heir of Seymour, whose rights were derived from his mother, Lady Catharine Grey, one of the most unfortunate of Elizabeth's victims." This last drop was too much, her glazing eye flashed with the old Tudor fire; her shrunken form started up from the couch, and in fierce and haughty tones she broke forth: "I told you that my seat had been the seat of Kings. I will have no rascal succeed me. Trouble me no more. He who comes after me must be a King. I will have none but our cousin of Scotland !"*

Alas for Ralegh! the parting soul of the queenly sufferer was unprophetic, and a "rascal" did succeed her, albeit in the person of "our cousin of Scotland!"

The contrast between the two sovereigns is exceedingly marked and striking. History, while she presents to our observation, very few such women as Elizabeth, unfortunately abounds in such men as James. She was distinguished by many of the best characteristics of his sex. He, was a strange blending of the worst weaknesses of hers. Her intellect, strengthened by exercise, and enriched by education, rapidly expanded and matured; embracing, with equal facility, the difficult problems of philosophy, the hidden beauties of literature, and the serious questions of state. His mind, ever subservient to his ruling weakness, was stored with scraps, and phrases, and superficialities; and the small stock of the solemn

* Cotton MS. Tytler, p. 221. Strickland.

pedant, was paraded with all the trickery of the royal buffoon. Her comprehension was enlarged; his contracted; her perception of character was acute and correct;—the little he possessed, was blunted by prejudice and warped by partiality. With her, the favorite never ceased to be the subject; with him, the pet of the moment, was the master of the King. Her ministers were chosen from the wisest, her commanders from the bravest, and her judges from the most learned of the realm; and the claims of the applicant for office were guaged by his ability to discharge its duties. Of the band that surrounded his throne, the most distinguished were old servants of hers, while the most infamous, were creatures of his own making. Her courageous spirit rode in armour through the lines at Tilbury; his craven soul drove him trembling behind his attendants, at the gleaming of a dagger. To the deliberations of the council chamber, she brought extensive information, and sensible speech. He wearied his ministers with crude notions of king craft, and fragments of delectable latin. As a Queen, she was frugal almost to parsimony, of the public money, while she indulged a woman's fondness for splendour and display. He, poor in pocket, as in spirit, borrowed spoons for his marriage feast; received ambassadors in the stockings of the Earl of Marr,* and counted over, inventory in hand, the jewels of his "beloved wife," before she had been two days dead! The position of Ralegh, under the new monarch, was alike dangerous and unpleasant.

* Miss Strickland's Queens of England, p. 260.`

† Ibid. 369.

"James feared and hated him."-Beaumont, Depéche, of Dec. 18.