1592]

RALEGH AND SPAIN.

75

his pretence of religion for no other purpose but to bewitch us from the obedience of our natural Prince, thereby hoping in time to bring us to slavery and subjection." As Ralegh grew older, and learned more, his opposition to Spain grew more and more statesmanlike. With this view he wished to found colonies, that through them England's trade and wealth might grow, and she might become more able to resist the encroachments of Spain.

In 1592 Ralegh planned a new attack upon Spain. The Queen lent him two ships, and he fitted out thirteen others. With these he intended to sail towards the Isthmus of Darien, and lie in wait there for Spanish treasure-ships. This time he started himself with the fleet on the 6th of May, 1592. But the next day he was overtaken by a swift pinnace, in which was Sir Martin Frobisher, bearing a letter from Elizabeth bidding him return at once.

On the 11th of May accordingly he left the fleet, giving one squadron in charge to Frobisher, and another to Sir John Burroughs. There is some obscurity about the cause of Ralegh's recall. It is generally supposed that Queen Elizabeth had found out his intrigue with Bessy Throgmorton, and wished to punish him for it. It is supposed by others that she did not like her favourite to run any risk, and that this recall had been arranged with himself before he started. Be this as it may, his love affair was known to the Queen

immediately after his return, and in July, 1592, Ralegh was lodged in the Tower for his offence.

Two years before, Essex had excited the Queen's bitter anger by his marriage with Frances Walsingham, the widow of Sir Philip Sidney. So violent was Elizabeth's anger, that in a letter written from Court, even some months after, we find it said: "The earl doth use it with good temper, concealing his marriage as much as so open a matter may be; not that he denies it to any, but, for her Majesty's better satisfaction, is pleased that my lady should live very retired in her mother's house." But Elizabeth could not get on without Essex, and her love for him was strong enough to make her overlook his marriage, and receive him into favour again.

With Ralegh it was different. In her first burst of anger Elizabeth committed him to the Tower. His enemies did their utmost to keep him in disgrace, so that he remained under the cloud of royal displeasure for a long while, and never quite regained his former favour. It is not possible to fix the date of his marriage with Elizabeth Throgmorton; but it seems to have taken place some time in 1592, whether before or after his imprisonment we do not know.

From the Tower Ralegh wrote letters describing, in the exaggerated language of the time, his despair at being banished from the presence of his royal mistress. In a letter written in July, 1592, he describes himself as "being become like a fish

1592]

RALEGH IN THE TOWER.

77

cast on dry land gasping for breath, with lame legs and lamer lungs." In another letter written to Sir Robert Cecil, Burleigh's son, in July, 1592, when Elizabeth was just starting on a progress, he says: “My heart was never broken till this day that I hear the Queen goes so far off, whom I have followed so many years with so great love and desire in so many journeys, and am now left behind her, in a dark prison all alone. While she was yet nigh at hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three days, my sorrows were the less: but even now my heart is cast into the depth of all misery. I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks like a nymph; sometime sitting in the shade like a goddess, sometime singing like an angel, sometime playing like an Orpheus." He ends his letter by saying, 'Do with me as you list; I am more weary of life than they are desirous I should perish." When we think that Ralegh was writing of a woman in her sixtieth year, this language seems absurdly overstrained; but such was the fashion of the day.

One day Ralegh saw from the windows of the Tower the Queen in her barge, followed by a gay procession of boats, pass down the river. "Suddenly," we are told by Sir Arthur Gorges, who was present, "he brake out into a great distemper, and swore that his enemies had brought

her Majesty thither to break his gall in sunder with Tantalus torment; that when she went away he might see his death before his eyes." He swore that he would disguise himself and get a sight of the Queen, or "his heart would break." As his keeper, Sir George Carew, would not consent, a quarrel followed, in which they ended by drawing their daggers. Gorges thus describes the scene to Cecil: "At the first I was ready to break with laughing, to see the two scramble and brawl like madmen, until I saw the iron walking, and then I did my best to appease the fury. As yet I cannot reconcile them by any persuasions; for Sir Walter swears that he shall hate him while he lives, for so restraining him from a sight of his mistress." Gorges ends his letter by saying that he fears Sir Walter Ralegh "will shortly grow to be Orlando Furioso if the bright Angelica persevere against him a little longer."

Whilst Ralegh was still in the Tower, news arrived that the portion of the fleet which he had despatched under Burroughs had captured a splendid prize, a large Spanish carrack, of 1,600 tons burden, called La Madre de Dios. It was laden with spices, drugs, silks, calicos, quilts, carpets, and colours, to the value of £150,000. This rich prize was brought home to Dartmouth. Of course the sailors had managed to pillage something before Burroughs was able to take formal possession of the ship in her Majesty's name. It now remained to divide the spoil amongst those

1562] CAPTURE OF THE "madre de Dios." 79 who had shared the expenses of the enterprise; the chief of these were the Queen, the Earl of Cumberland, and Ralegh himself. Elizabeth did not disdain to share, as a private person, in the expense of fitting out an expedition having no other aim than piracy, and she was content to enrich herself with the spoil.

The news of the great prize filled the country with excitement. Merchants hurried to Dartmouth in the hope of making good bargains with the sailors for the plunder they had managed to secure. The port is said to have looked like "Bartholomew fair." The Queen appointed commissioners to go down to look after her interest in the capture, the chief of whom was Sir Robert Cecil. She also allowed Ralegh to go down to look after his interests, though she sent a keeper with him to see that he did not escape. The excitement on the arrival of the Madre de Dios caused great confusion. The sailors were mutinous from their desire to lay hands on the booty, and it was absolutely necessary that some commanding spirit should be there to keep order. "To bring this to some good effect," wrote Sir John Hawkins, "Sir Walter Ralegh is the very man."

Sir Robert Cecil was very anxious to reach Dartmouth before Ralegh; and in an amusing letter to his father, Lord Burleigh, he gives an account of his journey. "Whomsoever I met by the way," he writes, "within seven miles, with anything either in cloke or malle which did but