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much gold ore as should have satisfied the King that I had propounded no vain thing. What shall become of me now I know not; I am unpardoned in England, and my poor estate consumed, and whether any other Prince or State will give me bread I know not." To his wife he wrote, "I was loathe to write, because I knew not how to comfort you; and God knows I never knew what sorrow meant till now. Comfort your heart, dearest Bess; I shall sorrow for us both. I shall sorrow the less because I have not long to sorrow, because not long to live. . . . . My braines are broken; it is a torment for me to write, and especially of misery."

...

Ralegh seems to have gone to Newfoundland on his way home. The fleet met with much rough weather; the men were discontented and mutinous; and when Ralegh reached Plymouth, on the 21st of June, his ship, the Destiny, was alone; the other ships had deserted him.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Execution of Sir Walter Ralegh.

HE news of the doings of the English on the

THE

Orinoco had reached London in the second week of May. Sarmiento was at once loud in his complaints to the King of Ralegh's conduct. James was quite ready to listen to him, and to agree with him that Ralegh had been the first to break the peace. On the 9th of June he issued proclamation, inviting all persons who might be able to supply information about the doings of Ralegh and his fleet to come and give evidence before the Privy Council. In the proclamation he spoke of the "horrible invasion of the town of San Thome," and of "a malicious breaking of the peace which hath been so happily established, and so long inviolately continued." James showed himself all eagerness to propitiate Spain; and his conduct makes it all the more wonderful that he should ever, thinking as he did, have allowed the expedition to start at all. No sane man can have supposed that Ralegh would have been allowed to get possession of a mine, situated in a territory

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RALEGH AT PLYMOUTH.

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which the Spaniards claimed as their own, and in which they had made settlements, without having some fighting with the Spaniards.

Ralegh has been blamed for having gone on the expedition, promising that he would not break the peace, whilst he clearly meant to do so. In so doing, there was in his mind no attempt to deceive. He still held to the view current in Elizabethan days of "No peace beyond the line." To fight with the Spaniards, who had been guilty of putting to death with horrible cruelty English merchants who had come merely to trade with them, was no crime in his eyes. He was firmly persuaded that if he could only bring back gold, or even clear proof of the existence of the mine, James, with his empty treasury, would willingly pardon the death of a few Spaniards. In the days when he and Drake and Hawkins had sailed the seas before, Elizabeth had not made too curious inquiries whether they broke the peace. He did not understand this new spirit of truckling to the Spaniard. True, it was not wise to go under the circumstances. But after those thirteen years in the damp, gloomy Tower, were not a few whiffs of fresh sea air worth any risk? What wonder if he grew careless, caught at everything, promised anything, if only he might be allowed once more to try to do something?

As soon as she heard that the Destiny had reached Plymouth, Lady Ralegh hastened to meet her husband; and sad must the meeting have

been for both, whilst the future grew more gloomy to Ralegh as he heard of the way in which the King had received the tidings of his doings. He left Plymouth, on his way to London, in the second week of July, his wife and one of his officers, Captain King, going with him. They had not gone more than twenty miles when they met Sir Lewis Stukeley, Vice-Admiral of Devon, who said that he had orders to arrest both Sir Walter and his ships. They had to turn back to Plymouth together. Stukeley treated Sir Walter as a friend ; for he wished to gain his confidence, and so learn his secrets. At Plymouth Ralegh lodged with his wife and King in a private house, whilst Stukeley was busy looking after the ship. Lady Ralegh, in her fear for the future, pleaded anxiously with her husband that he would try to escape. King joined in her pleading. At last Ralegh yielded to them, and King engaged a vessel to carry him to France. At midnight Ralegh and King started in a little boat to row to the vessel. But when they were within a quarter of a mile of it Ralegh gave orders to turn the boat round. Before he sailed for Guiana he had solemnly promised Arundel and others that he would come back. By merely landing at Plymouth he had not kept his word. He would not fly. He allowed King to give orders that the vessel should be kept in readiness for another night or two; but he did not try to get to her again. He preferred to be true to his word, and come back to face his accusers.

1618] RALEGH COUNTERFEITS İLLNESS.

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Stukeley was busy selling the tobacco with which the Destiny had been laden; but on the 25th of July, in obedience to an order from the council, he started for London with his prisoner. They passed through country well known to Ralegh, which must have wakened many fond recollections. They went close by the fair woods and pastures of Sherborne, which he had hoped to leave to his children for ever; and the men of Devon and Dorset, who knew and loved him well, must have crowded to gaze on him as he passed.

Ralegh was very anxious to gain some time before reaching London. Time was wanted to enable his friends to prepare to do for him all that they could; and he himself wished to write, whilst it was possible, a statement of his doings in Guiana to send to the King. He felt that his condition was very desperate. The next day, after passing Sherborne, when near to Salisbury, he got out to walk down the hill, and drew Manourie, a French doctor, who was one of their company, aside, and began to speak to him of his desire to gain time, "in order," he said, "that I may work my friends, give order for my affairs, and, it may be, pacify his Majesty before my coming to London; for I know well that, as soon as I come there, I shall to the Tower, and that they will cut off my head, if I use no means to escape it." He proceeded to ask Manourie to give him an emetic, so that he might counterfeit illness, which would make a delay necessary. That night, at Salisbury, he