half hanged, in the opinion of all men he had been acquitted." He adds that a Scotsman

who witnessed the proceedings "said that whereas, when he saw him first, he was so led with the common hatred that he would have gone a hundred miles to have seen him hanged, he would, ere he parted, have gone a thousand to have saved his life."*

The

But ability, eloquence, even innocence, so powerful over disinterested spectators, had no effect on a hostile court and a pliant jury; and still less when they believed, from too sure indications, that the surest way to raise themselves was to destroy their victim. trial took place at Winchester, Nov. 17th, 1603, and the sentence was duly pronounced, condemning him to the horrible penalties of treason. "Lost" was he, as he said in a letter to the king, "for hearing a vain man; for hearing only, and never believing or approving." He was for some time detained at Winchester, where he waited in daily ex

* [This was not the impression of a single person. Carleton adds, "Never was a man so hated and so popular in so short a time." Among other testimonies that it was not singular, we have this in a letter of Sir Walter, written at the close of his imprisonment to Sir Ralph Winwood, that the Prince Henry, the queen, and the King of Denmark had petitioned in his favour. "The wife, the brother, and the son of a king do not use to sue for men suspect."-H.]

pectation of death, the king having, with a refinement of cruelty, taken care that he should be informed that the warrant for his execution had been prepared.

During this interval of suspense he wrote a touching farewell letter to his wife:

"You shall now receive, my dear wife, my last words in these my last lines. My love I send you, that you may keep it when I am dead; and my counsel, that you may remember it when I am no more. I would not, by my will, present you with sorrows, dear Bess; let them go into the grave with me, and be buried in the dust. And, seeing it is not the will of God that ever I shall see you more in this life, bear it patiently, and with a heart like thyself. I beseech for the love you bear me living, do not hide yourself many days after my death; but by your travail seek to help your miserable fortunes and the right of your poor child.* Thy mournings cannot avail me; I am but dust.

...

you,

. . If you can live free from want, care for no more; the rest is but vanity. Love God, and begin betimes to repose yourself on him;

* [Walter, whom he lost at Guiana. Carew was born af terward, in the Tower.-H.]

and therein shall you find true and lasting riches and endless comfort. For the rest, when you have travailed and wearied your thoughts over all sorts of worldly cogitations, you shall but sit down by sorrow in the end. When I am gone, no doubt you shall be sought to by many, for the world thinks that I was very rich. But take heed of the pre

...

tences of men and their affections. I speak not this, God knows, to dissuade from marriage; for it will be best for you, both in respect of the world and of God. As for me, I am no more yours, nor you mine. Death has cut us asunder, and God hath divided me from the world, and you from me. Remember your poor child for his father's sake, who chose you and loved you in his happiest time. Get those letters, if it be possible, which I writ to the lords, wherein I sued for my life. God is my witness it was for you and yours that I desired life. But it is true that I disdain myself for begging it: for know it, dear wife, that your son is the son of a true man, and one who, in his own respect, despiseth death in all his misshapen and ugly forms. . . . Written with the dying hand of some time thy husband, but now, alas! overthrown-yours that was, but now not my own, WALTER Ralegh."

But the axe, by which he expected speedily to suffer, was to be suspended over him for years. To complete this miserable farce, Cobham and Grey were reprieved at the block, and Raleigh was remanded to the Tower to await the king's pleasure.

We have followed the career of Raleigh as a soldier, a courtier, a discoverer, a politician. We are now to look upon him in a scene more trying than were they all. Few men can bear gracefully the weariness of a long imprisonment; fewer still whose habits have been as active, and whose temper so adventurous as his. He was shut out from almost all that had been the delight of his former life; there were no more campaigns or voyages, masques or intrigues of court. Yet his versatile powers sustained him patiently and cheerfully through. His faithful wife and son were not excluded. A few attendants were allowed him. Thomas Heriot remained near his person, and the few friends whom his merits and misfortunes made might sometimes solace him by their visits. He turned again for relief to his books, which he had always loved, and which had been his companions in his busiest hours. Poetry, philosophy, history, politics, chymistry, by

turns occupied his attention. He converted a small house in the garden belonging to the Tower into a laboratory, and "spent all the day in distillations." Among other proofs of his ingenuity and success was a famous cordial, for which he made the recipe, and which has since gone by the name of Sir Walter's cordial. Here he wrote, too, most of those works which have gained him a reputation, hardly surpassed by his fame as a soldier and discoverer.* Foremost among which, in the judgment of posterity, is his History of the World. Whether we consider the vastness of the scheme, and the scanty resources which his imprisonment allowed him for its execution, the abundant learning everywhere displayed in it, the nervous and elegant style, the exuberant fancy, and the sad yet patient morality which characterize it, we cannot but judge it one of the most remarkable literary productions the world has

ever seen.

* [The miscellaneous literary productions of Sir Walter are very numerous, and, until a critical examination shall have finally decided on their authenticity, we may safely, perhaps, follow Cayley, who gives a list of them, amounting in number to thirty-two.-Life of Raleigh, ii., 186. More recently, a collection of his works, designed to comprise them all, has been published at Oxford, 8 vols. 8vo.-H.]