child more! I cannot. I have desired God and disputed with my reason, but nature and compassion hath the victory. That I can live to think how you are both left a spoil to my enemies, and that my name shall be a dishonour to my childI cannot endure the memory thereof. Unfortunate woman, unfortunate child, comfort yourselves; trust God, and be contented with your poor estate! I would have bettered it if I had enjoyed a few years. Thou art a young woman, and forbear not to marry again. It is now nothing to me; thou art no more mine nor I thine. To witness that thou didst love me once, take care that thou marry not to please sense, but to avoid poverty and to preserve thy child.

"For myself, I am left of all men, that have done good to many. All my good turns are forgotten; all my errors revived and expounded to all extremity of ill. All my services, hazards, and expences for my country-plantings, discoveries, fights, councils, and whatsoever else... malice hath now covered over. I am now made an enemy and a traitor by the word of an unworthy man. He hath proclaimed me to be a partaker of his vain imaginations, notwithstanding the whole course of my life hath approved the contrary, as my death shall approve it. Woe, woe, woe be unto him by whose falsehood we are lost! He hath separated us asunder; he hath slain my honour, my fortune; he hath robbed thee of thy husband, thy child of his father, and me of you

1603]

LETTER TO HIS WIFE.

both. O God, Thou dost know my wrongs!

161

But, my wife, forgive them all as I do. Live humble; for thou hast but a time also. God forgive my Lord Harry; for he was my heavy enemy and for my Lord Cecil, I thought he would never forsake me in extremity! I would not have done it him, God knows. But do not thou know it; for he must be master of thy child, and may have compassion of him. Be not dismayed that I die in despair of God's mercies. Strive not to dispute it, but assure thyself that God hath not left me nor Satan tempted me. Hope and despair live not together. I know it is forbidden to destroy ourselves; but I trust it is forbidden in this sort, that we destroy not ourselves despairing of God's mercy. The mercy of God is immeasurable; the cogitations of men comprehend it not.

In the Lord I have ever trusted; and I know that my Redeemer liveth. Far is it from me to be tempted with Satan; I am only tempted with sorrow, whose sharp teeth devour my heart. O God, Thou art goodness itself! Thou canst not but be good to me! O God, Thou art mercy itself! Thou canst not but be merciful to me!"

Then, after a few words about his debts, he goes on: "Oh, intolerable infamy! O God, I cannot resist these thoughts! I cannot live to think how I am derided, to think of the expectations of my enemies, the scorns I shall receive, the cruel words of the lawyers, the infamous taunts and

M

despites to be made a wonder and a spectacle. O death, hasten thou unto me, that thou mayest destroy the memory of these, and lay me up in dark forgetfulness! O death, destroy my memory, which is my tormentor; my thoughts and my life cannot dwell in one body! But do thou forget me, poor wife, that thou mayest live to bring up my poor child. . . . I bless my poor child; and let him know his father was no traitor. Be bold of my innocence; for God, to whom I offer life and soul, knows it. And whosoever thou choose after me, let him be but thy politique husband. But let my son be thy beloved; for he is part of me, and I live in him; and the difference is but in the number and not in the kind. And the Lord for ever keep thee and them, and give thee comfort in both worlds."

The Lord Harry mentioned in this letter was Lord Henry Howard, who, by his secret correspondence with James before Elizabeth's death, had succeeded in prejudicing the King's mind against Ralegh. He had ingratiated himself with James by means of the vilest flattery. He became an ally of Cecil's, to whom he was recommended by James; and it seems as if, after his connexion with Howard, Cecil's feelings towards Ralegh had steadily grown more hostile. After James's accession, Howard became a member of the Council, and was made Earl of Northampton in 1604. He continued to pursue Ralegh with bitter animosity.

1603]

RALEGĦ AND COBHAM.

163

Ralegh speedily recovered from his slight wound. He saw now that his one hope was to succeed in persuading Cobham to retract his false statements regarding him. He managed to have a letter conveyed to Cobham, in which he implored him to speak the truth. This letter was tied round an apple, and thrown through the window into the room in the Tower where Cobham was imprisoned, by Cotterell, an attendant of Ralegh's in the Tower. Cotterel brought back the answer, which Cobham had thrust under his door. In this Cobham said: "I never had conference with you in any treason, nor was I ever moved by you to the things I heretofore accused you of; and, for anything I know, you are as innocent and as clear from any treasons against the King as is any subject living.

God so deal with me, and have mercy on my soul, as this is true."

But even this was not to help Ralegh; and once more before Ralegh's trial Cobham had withdrawn his retractation, and made new charges against his old friend.

CHAPTER XII.

Ralegh's Trial at Winchester.

S the plague was at that time raging in London, it was determined that the trial of the conspirators should be conducted at Winchester. On the 12th of November Ralegh was brought out of the Tower to be taken to Winchester, under the charge of Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower. So great was Ralegh's unpopularity amongst the citizens that he was greeted as he passed through the streets by the execrations of the mob. "It was hob or nob," Waad told Cecil, "whether or not Ralegh should have been brought alive through such multitudes of unruly people as did exclaim against him. If one harebrained fellow amongst the multitudes had begun to set upon him, as they were very near to do it, no entreaty or means could have prevailed, the fury and tumult of the people was so great." We shall see that in the end Ralegh's misfortunes taught the people to know him as he really was, and to reverence him in the days of his fall as much as they had hated him in the days of his prosperity.