ment.* But this bright season was soon destined to be overclouded. His enemies, not contented with the evil they had already brought upon him, renewed their efforts to complete his ruin; and unhappily the king's mind was of that weak and capricious cast which received an easy bias from interested persons. The first indication of change seems to have been conveyed to him when James sent for the seal of the high public offices he had held under Elizabeth, as warden of the Stanneries, captain of her guard, and governor of Jersey. This he immediately returned, accompanied by a letter, in which he strongly protested his innocence, and besought the king for a favourable consideration of his case. "If,” said he, "I be here restrained till the powers both of my body and mind shall be so enfeebled, as I cannot hope to do your majesty some acceptable and extraordinary service, whereby I may truly approve my faith and intentions to my sovereign, Lord God doth know that then it had been happiest for me to have died long since."+ So little impression was made by this affecting appeal, that it was followed by a far more severe blow. His estate of Sherborne, which, in his prosperous days, he had taken so much delight in improving, had been settled by him, in the close of Elizabeth's reign, on his eldest son, and the king, notwithstanding his attainder, had granted him a liferent interest in it. The conveyance of this property was now scrutinized with eyes sharpened by avarice and malignity. The deed was referred for examination to the same chief-justice who sat on the trial; and this dignitary decided that, from the clerk having omitted some words, it was invalid. Robert Carr, the king's new favourite, afterwards the notorious Earl of Somerset, was *Sir John Harrington's Brief View of the State of the Church of England, pp. 93, 94. See the letter, printed for the first time from the original in the State-paper Office, by Mrs Thomson, Appendix, letter R. Raleigh's seal I had the good fortune to meet with in the collection of ancient seals made by an ingenious artist in Edinburgh, Mr Laing. He had taken an impression from a cast, communicated to him by Mr Cayley; and a fac-simile of it has been engraved for the title-page of this work. R easily persuaded to take advantage of this legal flaw, and to solicit the estate; and so infatuated was James's attachment to this weak courtier, that Raleigh, from the moment he heard the circumstances, knew he had only to expect spoliation. This, however, did not prevent him from attempting to avert the calamity by a letter of remonstrance to the favourite: It is written in a tone of manly expostulation. "SIR,-After some great losses and many years' sorrows (of both which I have cause to fear I was mistaken in the end), it is come to my knowledge that yourself, whom I know not but by an honourable fame, hath been persuaded to give me and mine our last fatal blow, by obtaining from his majesty the inheritance of my children and nephews, lost in the law for want of a word. This done, there remaineth nothing with me but the name of life; despoiled of all else but the title and sorrow thereof. His majesty, whom I never offended (for I hold it unnatural and unmanlike to hate goodness), stayed me at the grave's brink, not, as I hope, that he thought me worthy of many deaths, and to behold all mine cast out of the world with myself; but as a king who, judging the poor in truth, hath received a promise from God that his throne shall be established for ever. "And for yourself, sir, seeing your fair day is but now in the dawn, and mine drawn to the evening, your own virtues and the king's grace assuring you of many favours and much honour, I beseech you not to begin your first building upon the ruins of the innocent, and that their sorrows with mine may not attend your first plantation. I have been ever bound to your nation, as well for many other graces as for the true report of my trial to the king's majesty, against whom, had I been found malignant, the hearing of my cause would not have changed enemies into friends, malice into compassion, and the minds of the greatest number then present into the commiseration of mine estate. It is not the nature of foul treason to beget such fair passions; neither could it agree with the duty and love of faithful subjects, especially of your nation, to bewail his overthrow who had conspired against their most natural and liberal lord. I therefore trust, sir, that you will not be the first who shall kill us outright, cut down the tree with the fruit, and undergo the curse of them that enter the fields of the fatherless, which, if it pleases you to know the truth, is far less in value than in fame,-but that so worthy a gentleman as yourself will rather bind us to you (being, sir, gentlemen not base in birth and alliance), who have interest therein. And myself, with my uttermost thankfulness, will ever remain ready to obey your commands. "WALTER RALEIGH."* This letter produced no effect on the profligate Somerset; nor was its tone suited to move a monarch like James, if indeed it ever came under his eye. The case was brought on, and Sherborne forfeited to the crown,— a judgment easily foreseen, as the law then stood, and considering the parties were a friendless prisoner and the King of England. On this occasion Lady Raleigh, a woman of high spirit and unchangeable affection, who had laboured in every way to alleviate her husband's misfortunes, threw herself on her knees before his majesty, attended by her children, and with tears implored him not to forget his most glorious attribute of mercy. James received her coldly, and gave no other answer than "I maun have the land-I maun have it for Carr." On this she prayed in bitterness of soul, that God would punish those cruel and unjust persons who had brought ruin on her husband and his house. So little, indeed, did intercession avail, that not only was Sherborne given to the favourite, but Pinford, Primesly, and Barton, lands which Sir Walter had purchased, were escheated and bestowed in the same quarter. * Cayley, vol. ii. pp. 87, 88. Carew Raleigh's Brief Relation of his Father's Troubles. Miscellaneous Works of Raleigh, vol. viii. p. 788. Against this undeserved severity Henry, James's eldest son, and heir-apparent to the throne, strongly remonstrated, interceding for the illustrious prisoner, in whose talents and misfortunes he had become much interested. This prince, from the contrast presented, by his excellent dispositions, to the character of his father, and the burst of national regret that followed his death, has perhaps been the subject of exaggerated panegyric. But making every allowance for the praises which a generous people lavish under such circumstances, Henry must still have been a youth of uncommon talents and promise. He was well able to appreciate the tyranny to which Raleigh had fallen a victim. Acute in the detection and indignant at the triumph of hypocrisy, he had imbibed an early aversion to Cecil, which not all the insinuating flattery of that pliant statesman was able to remove. * Not contented with censuring the conduct of those concerned in the trial, he endeavoured to soften the cruelty of the sentence. He corresponded with the condemned, expressed a desire to profit by his experience in civil and military policy, and courted his instructions regarding the maintenance and due regulation of the navy. Navigation was one of the prince's 'favourite studies; the building, rigging, sailing, and fighting of ships formed with him a subject of diligent inquiry and experiment. Unlike his timid father, Henry esteemed a readiness for war and a jealousy of national honour the best preservative of peace; and, contemplating hostilities with Spain, he meditated great designs against the West Indies, and the mother country itself, for executing which a powerful fleet would be required. These opinions entirely coincided with those of Sir Walter, who, in his discourses on such subjects addressed to his youthful patron, eloquently answers the objections to the support of a warlike fleet in time of peace. "Though the sword," says he, "is put into the sheath, we must not suffer it to rust, or stick so fast that we shall not be able * Birch's Life of Prince Henry, pp. 76, 109, 138. * * We may to draw it readily when need requires. be assured, that if those powerful means whereby we reduced our enemies to the courtesy of seeking peace of us were neglected, so as we could not again, upon occasion, readily assume the use and benefit of them as we have done; those proud mastering spirits, finding us at such advantage, would be more willing to shake us by the ears as enemies than to take us by the hands as friends. Therefore, far be it from our hearts to trust more to that friendship of strangers, which is but dissembled upon policy and necessity, than to the strength of our own forces, which has been experienced with so happy success. I confess that peace is a blessing of God, and blessed are the peacemakers; therefore, doubtless, blessed are those means whereby peace is gained and maintained: the which means of our defence and safety, being shipping and sea-forces, are to be esteemed as His gifts, and then only available and beneficial when he withal vouchsafes his grace to use them aright." * Raleigh was no advocate for war in general; his ambition was not for conquest but security: all wanton outrage, or unnecessary invasions on the territories of another power, he proscribes as idle and wicked. "It may be affirmed," says he, "the number of those that have been slaughtered by their fellow-creatures exceeds the number of all the inhabitants that ever were at one time living upon the face of the earth; yet very few of this infinite number, thus untimely slain, were ever masters of the grounds of the disputes for which they suffered, or the true reason of their being led to the battle; the truth, with much artifice, being kept from all but what were parties to the design resolved on. What deluded wretches, then, have a great part of mankind been, who have either yielded themselves to be slain in causes which, if truly known, their hearts would abhor, or been the bloody executioners of other men's ambition! It is a hard fate to be slain for what a man should never *Raleigh's Essays, p. 44. |