Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Guise on the coast of Normandy. England never saw a moment of greater peril, and England never met danger with a braver spirit. The nation felt that under God, they must prove the bulwarks of liberty of conscience and liberty of person to Europe. The queen was now all queen, her lion heart was roused, and she forgot all her woman's nonsense. It was no time to be fancying herself beautiful and beloved, and to make herself a ridiculous old fool in court pageants. She had a kingdom and a crown at stake. She formed immediately a council of war, of which Raleigh was perhaps the most conspicuous member. Burleigh says that the course pursued was chiefly on Raleigh's advice. No man was more competent than he to give counsel. Intimately acquainted with the resources of Spain, he was at the same time a skilful admiral and an experienced general. In an incredibly short period, so extensive and complete were the military preparations, that (according to the testimony of an eye-witness and Spanish spy) the maritime counties were so furnished that upon any one spot where a landing might be made, within 48 hours an army of 20,000 men fully provided could be assembled, under the command of the most experienced officers. The queen was as cheerful as she was brave. It is enough to move the spirits, like the trumpet's call to battle, when we read the heroic words of Elizabeth at Tilbury. She was of the true Tudor blood-"My loving people," (thus she spake) "we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear! I have always so behaved myself, that under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and, therefore, I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live or die amongst you all: to lay down for my God, for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even in the dust. I know that I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain or any prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realms."

Raleigh, though he had a command on land, determined that his services should be rendered on the sea. It would bring him first into contact with the enemy, and beside, his adventurous spirit better loved the ocean for the very dangers that attended it. In the midst of all his activity he found time hastily to dispatch two ships to his colonists, and then all his thoughts were for England. And yet in the face of all these facts, a modern English writer of deserved celebrity (Southey), states that the abandonment of his poor colonists in Carolina "must ever be a reproach to Raleigh." He says that no "attempt was made to relieve them, nor to ascertain their fate." He might have found proof of his inaccuracy in the volumes of Purchas. This writer informs us, under the date of 1602, that "Samuel Mace of Weymouth, a very sufficient mariner, who had been at Virginia twice before, was (in this year) employed thither by Sir Walter Raleigh, to find those people which were left there in 1587, to whose succor he had sent five several times at his own charges.”—Purchas, vol. iv., 1653.

It was on an evening in the latter part of July that the English first descried the enemy, which had entered the British channel the day before. The Armada came on majestically, the ships forming a semi-circle of seven miles in extent. The battle soon commenced, and lasted with intervals until the 1st of August (a period of ten days), when fairly vanquished in every engagement of the ships and sorely handled by the storms, the remainder of this proud navy, consisting of fifty-three vessels, was glad to escape to Spain, and there presented an appearance so shattered, and crews so exhausted, that its very presence was as mortifying as the capture of its companions. Raleigh shared in all the dangers of this protracted sea-fight, and the Lord High Admiral was happy to follow his counsel. After the victory, England found fresh cause for thankfulness in the revelations afforded by some of the prizes of the humane intentions of the Spaniards. Superstition and bigotry had not been unemployed in the great work of preparation to subdue England. The thumb-screws and iron boots with wedges, and whips, and manacles, with divers other ingenious devices to punish heresy and promote conversion, were dragged to the light of day, and their purposes explained by some VOL. I.-3.

of the pious ecclesiastics who were made prisoners. These instruments of torture were preserved as trophies, and are yet in the tower of London. In the midst of them, at least such was the fact not many years ago, was placed the instrument by which the gallant man of whom we write suffered death. It was hard to look upon the trophies and the axe, and in their unfortunate juxtaposition not to read a comment on worldly renown, and a satire on royal gratitude.

Amid all these exciting vicissitudes of war, by sea and by land, with the cares of his colonies and the duties of his many offices, Raleigh proved himself to be a wonderful man in the eyes of many, because he found time to address himself to the promotion of the interests of science, and to form a plan for the ready communication and correspondence of the learned among themselves. He is thus supposed to have laid the foundation of those national societies that have contributed so largely to the diffusion of scientific discovery. The secret of his accomplishing so much, however, was very obvious to all those who to activity of mind united method in the arrangement and dispatch of business.

His next enterprise was an expedition to restore the King of Portugal to his throne, from which he was excluded by Spain, and his services were deemed worthy of reward by Elizabeth.

Immediately after, we find him proposing to her majesty an expedition against Panama with a plan for intercepting the Plate fleet. On this, having embarked all his private fortune, he sailed in person, and was called back by a messenger from the queen almost as soon as he had reached the open sea. Alas! his sin was that he had ventured to love, and had not made her majesty the object. The queen sometimes granted monopolies to others, but there was one particular in which she tolerated no monopoly but in herself. She thought herself entitled by royal prerogative to all the love, and, like most of her sex who are exacting in that particular, she obtained none that was sincere. Raleigh had seen enough of the ladies of the bed-chamber to induce him to say that "they were like witches, who could do hurt, but could do no good." There was, however, among the queen's maids of honor one between whom and Raleigh there was formed a devoted attachment. Unlike the queen, Elizabeth Throckmorton was

young and beautiful. It is probable that she was privately married to Raleigh before his departure on the Panama expedition, and when the story of the attachment of this young couple came to the knowledge of her majesty, she showed how far she herself was capable of understanding or feeling real love, by the sympathy she exhibited toward two of her fellow creatures, who loved and were worthy of each other: She sent Raleigh to the tower, and banished his wife from the court. His enemies now supposed that his ruin would be easy; but Raleigh understood the queen's character, and by a flattery of her vanity, which was altogether unworthy of him, was released from his confinement. The sunshine of the royal favor, however, rested not on him as brightly as before; yet we find him very soon in parliament, taking an active and wise part in its discussions.

The queen, notwithstanding her resentment, could not but appreciate the talents and services of the member for Devon, and had no wish to deprive herself of his really valuable aid. She therefore partially relented and made him a grant of the manor of Sherborne in Dorsetshire; but she permitted not his presence at the court. He retired to his new estate, and without wasting his strength in the vain attempt then to breast a current that was too strong for him, he was willing for the time to be forgotten by his enemies; but with the policy of true wisdom, determined, by the accomplishment of some great enterprise for his country's glory, far beyond the reach or ambition of the minions of a court, at once to regain the favor of the queen, and, placing himself on a loftier eminence than he had occupied before, to defeat the malice of his enemies. He turned his thoughts to conquest in America. Aware of what the Spaniards had done in the southern part of our continent, he resolved to rival their boldest achievements, and make the conquest of Guiana. His imagination was excited by the Spanish stories of El Dorado, as they termed it, and fabulous as they were, his was not the temper to indulge incredulity when he remembered that Cortes had proved Mexico to be a golden reality. The historians of Spanish conquests in this hemisphere had left on record tales of the city of Manoa and its wealth, depicting the gorgeous splendor of more than oriental luxury and riches; and Manoa, as yet unvisited by Englishmen, invited a

genius like that of Raleigh to its discovery and its conquest. There can be no doubt that he fully believed in its existence himself. In 1594, he dispatched an officer who had long been in his service to explore the territory. He, on his return, though he represented the enterprise as one full of difficulty, shook not Raleigh's resolution for a moment. In 1595, he fitted out a fleet of five vessels, and taking the command himself, sailed from Plymouth.

It would occupy too much time to speak particularly of this expedition. Suffice it to say, that its commander accomplished, probably, all that any man could do in his situation. It was not, however, done without cost. He thus touchingly describes his condition to the Lord High Admiral and Robert Cecil :-" Of the little remaining fortune I had, I have wasted, in effect, all herein. I have undergone many constructions; been accompanied with many sorrows, with labor, hunger, heat, sickness and peril. From myself I have deserved no thanks, for I am returned a beggar and withered." To add to his misfortunes, his enemies had availed themselves of his absence to prepossess the queen's mind against him; and his reception (notwithstanding his discoveries) was marked by coldness and suspicion.

The unfortunate victim of defamation and distrust found, however, a few who could appreciate what he had done, and although Elizabeth, in the spirit of parsimony, refused to colonize Guiana, they assisted him in his purpose of at least keeping up a communication with his distant discoveries until the arrival of brighter times. He was thus able to dispatch two vessels, under the command of an officer who had served with him on his first expedition.

Scarcely, however, had he sailed before Raleigh found work to do near home. Spain was still powerful; the hatred of Philip had been slumbering only, since the defeat of the Armada. He had collected a formidable fleet at Cadiz, and meditated a descent upon England. The bold spirit of Raleigh conceived the daring design of not even permitting these ships to reach the open sea, but of destroying them within the very harbor of Spain. He had indeed recommended this plan in the case of the Armada, eight years before. The queen now saw, as she supposed, its wisdom, and determined to adopt it. Raleigh was appointed one of the

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »