could never wade through it, but died in the Tower; though Cobham did, but to such a liberty as only afforded him the choyce of a place to starve in, all his land being formerly confiscate and begg'd; so as my selfe heard William, Earle of Pembroke, relate with much regret towards him, (though in his life his opposer, in exasperating the old queene against him in relation to a juvenile lapse, for which he was by her committed to the Fleete,) that he died in a roome, ascended by a ladder, at a poore womans house in the Minories, formerly his landeresse, rather of hunger, then any more naturall disease. Thus miserable was his fate, in meeting with a prince so inconsiderately profuse to strangers, that he forgot the owner, not leaving him wherewithall to buy bread; an impiety not found amongst infidells, who ever deemed it lesse injustice to take away life, then the meanes to maintaine it. Which may one day inspire a parliament with so much wisdome, as to abate the rigor of the law in relation

to the posterity of criminals, who are, in this particular, dealt withall, contrary to the decree of God and nature, who saith, the person offending shall only dye, and no punishment descend to the innocent children: found the occasion of much mischiefe, especially to men of honour and estates, by affording a wide and legall pretence for ma❤ lice and tyranny to expatiate in; manifested in that prodigious parliament, and might have been easily redressed, had not their frequent purgations left them no other hu mour but what related to continuance and selfe interest; contrary to the nature of that court, which ought not to be perpetuall; who, in the decollation of monarchy, cut off all hope of bettering the miserable condition of the English subject.

7. As for Rawleigh, none ever imployed inlargement worse, that knew so well how to advantage himselfe and his country in imprisonment: For, during his tedious lying in the Tower, (under the jealousy rather then justice of King James, who did so farre

participate of the humour of a pusilanimous prince, as to pardon any sooner then those injured by himselfe,) he was delivered of that Minerva, the History of the old World; which travell of his brain proved more successfull, then that of his body, to discover a new one, in that unhappy voyage to Guiana, in which his son, with a number of other gentlemen, were lost and undone, and he exposed to the Spanish cruelty, who, about that time, began to dazle the weaker eyes of James, with the contemplation of a match between our prince and that kings sister, to whom Sir Walter had rendered himself suspected, no lesse then he had formerly disobliged the treasurer Cecill, by obstructing, to the farthest extent of his power, a peace, through his mediation, propounded in the very shutting in of Queen Elizabeth's daies: which was not only the cause of his arraignment long before, and carried on so fiercely by Attourney Cook, and other dependers on

the treasurer, at Winchester; but of the order upon this occasion sent, though long after, to Gondamor, the Spanish agent, vigorously to demand the head of Rawly for an assault made by him on his masters Indies: A head of more weight to our court, (especially in that dearth of wisdome then raging,) then the Infanta could be, notwithstanding the most generall no lesse then the least suspected reports made her alone owner, (though small in stature,) of the greatest beauty, virtue, gallantry, and prudence, that were at that day extant in woman kind. But as the foolish idolaters were wont to sacrifice the choycest of their children to the devill, the common enemy of

'Cook was then Attorney-General, and his unseemly and outrageous violence in conducting the prosecution against Raleigh, stamps him one of the most infamous tools that ever served the purposes of tyrannic power. He used the pronoun thou in addressing the prisoner; afforded him no better words, than viper and traitor while he was yet on his defence; brow-beat and insulted his witnesses; and, when he had prospect of procuring a conviction, exclaimed, "Now Jesus Christ shall be glorified."

humanity; so our king gave up this incomparable jewel to the will of this monster in ambition, under the pretence of a superannuated transgression; contrary to the opinion of the most honest sort of gownmen, who maintained, that his majesties pardon lay inclusively in the commission he gave him upon his setting out to sea: It being incongruous, that he, who remained under the notion of one dead in law, should, as a generall, dispose of the lives of others, not being himselfe master of his owne: But the Spanish faction, then absolute at court, and sole managers of the kings power, no lesse then his justice, did so farre tender his catholick majesties full satisfaction in the procuring his death, the only man of note left alive that had helped to beate them in the yeare 1588, that no absurdity lying in the way of his prosecution could deterre them from making use of his former condemnation: Remembering, withall, how far his wit had puzled them at Winchester, that though his judges were willing enough to

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