The connexion of Gondomar and the Spaniards with the death of Raleigh was too important to be passed without some notice. Many circumstances concur to show a longcherished purpose, on their part, to bring him to the block. He had long been their avowed enemy, and their most formidable one in England. He had fought and conquered them, spoken against them in Parliament, and written against them with profound wisdom and bitter hatred. With his dislike was mingled somewhat of contempt. "It were," he had said, "a horrible dishonour to be overreached by any of those dry and subtleheaded Spaniards." The dislike and suspicion seem to have been mutual. From the moment of his entering upon the plan of his last voyage to Guiana, every particular of his movements was carefully communicated to the Spanish court. These particulars were at once sent to the Spanish governors in America. In the plunder taken at Santa Thome were letters from the King of Spain referring to his expedition, with a minute account of his course and armament, and dated before his departure from the Thames. So * [In his Discourse on the Marriage of the Prince of Wales. —H.] † [See the Hardwicke State Papers, i., 398.-H]. completely was James, whose heart was now set on the Spanish match, under the influence of Gondomar, and Raleigh an object of watchful jealousy. James seems to have felt that the recent acts of Sir Walter would hardly justify his execution. He had ample proof of his sincere belief in the existence of the gold mine: he must have known that in the affair of Santa Thome the Spaniards were the aggressors, and he was obliged to resort to conjectures, assertions, and remote circumstances to make out anything like a case of intended depredation and plunder. Accordingly, from the day of his arrest till his final sentence, he was surrounded with spies, and beset with every snare that might entrap him into an unwary confession, or some act that might be construed into guilt. He was arrested when on his way to London by his false kinsman Sir Lewis Stukely, who proposed and thwarted several plans for his escape. Manourie, a Frenchman, was also employed to aid in this perfidious business. After he was confined in the Tower, Sir Thomas Wilson was appointed his keeper, and secretly commission, ed as a spy. Learned but mean, and refined but cruel, he played his part well, and daily Нн 2 reported to the king the petty items of information he had succeeded in extracting from his illustrious prisoner. His letters to his wife were intercepted to furnish matter of accusation, and read by the king. Yet there was on his part no confession or intimation of guilt. The only act which could be thought to look that way was his attempt to escapehalf formed and speedily repented of an act springing, as he said in his letter to the king, "from a life-saving natural impulsion, with out an ill intent." But the marriage of Prince Charles with the Infanta must be effected; the Spanish court were urgent; and delay, which was found ineffectual for the purpose of crimination, was now useless. The only question remaining was under what form of law Sir Walter might most properly, to save the appearance of justice, be brought to the scaffold. Several devices were proposed and rejected. The new charge against him must not be made the ground of his sentence, for that charge would not bear examination. The king, in the plenitude of his wisdom, was at fault. It was finally decided that the former sentence should be revived, and that he should be brought, on a writ of Habeas Corpus, before the judges of the King's Bench, to give answer why that decree, which had slumbered now fifteen years, should not be executed. "He was condemned," says his son Carew, "for being a friend to the Spaniards, and lost his life for being their bitter enemy." He was brought up Oct. 24th, 1618, and interrupted in his defence with the information that no plea could be admitted except special words of pardon: whereupon he threw himself upon the king's mercy. There was no mercy for him, and on the 28th he was again brought to the bar to receive final sentence. On his return to prison, he was told he must prepare to die the following morning. The sentence was received with calmness, and on his way back to the prison he said cheerfully to the friends who were with him, that the world was but a larger prison, from which some are every day selected for execution. Hasty as the summons was, neither did his wonted fortitude forsake him, nor did the consolations of religion fail him. The evening before the day that was to end his life was passed by him in a careful preparation for the life to come. The few items of business which yet remained to him were arranged. About midnight his wife, whose love was as tender as it had been faithful, took the last farewell. When she told him that his remains had been placed at her disposal, "It is well, Bess," said he, with a smile," that thou mayst dispose of that dead thou hadst not always the disposing of when alive." Before composing himself to sleep, he wrote a few memoranda touching the false reports and charges against him, and, turning to his devotions, wrote on a blank leaf of his Bible these lines: Even such is Time, that takes on trust Early the next morning he received the holy communion from the hands of the Dean of Westminster, expressing a firm assurance of the love and favour of God, and a free forgiveness of all his enemies, and by name of those who had betrayed him. He showed no fear of death, and yet made no parade of courage, but rather manifested a truly Christian resignation and cheerfulness. After |