But though he always made a very elegant Appearance, as well in the Splendor of Attire, as the Politeness of Addrefs; having a good Prefence, in a bandsome and well compacted Perfon; a ftrong natural Wit, and a better Judgment; with a bold and plaufible Tongue, whereby he could fet out his Parts to the best Advantage: All very engaging Advocates for Royal Favour, efpecially in a female Sovereign: But be that as it may, we find him, upon his Return into England, employed in an Expedition or two, by Authority belike from the Court; they being upon Occafions of State. And though it imports not much whether it was now, or before he was in Ireland, that he accompanied the French Ambaffador, Monfieur Simier, among thofe Gentlemen who were appointed for his fafe Convoy to France; yet if that Ambaffador returned home, when his Mafter the Duke of Anjou came laft over in November, the Year before-named, this is the Place for it to be mentioned in. But after the Duke of Anjou himself had been three Months in England, he alfo departed to take upon him the Government of the Netherlands. This Departure was in February following; and though the Queen seems to have declined the Marriage with him, principally because the found her Ministry fo averse to it; yet there was an Author, and his Printer, who, for having publifhed a little Treatife against it about two Years before, had their Hands cut off but a few Days after the Duke came to London. † And the fhewed him many other * This Treatife is entitled, The Discovery of a gaping Gulph, wherein England is likely to be fwallowed by another French Marriage, &c. Printed with a fmall Letter, in a thin Octavo, 1579. The Names of this Author, and his Printer or Publisher, were other Marks of Favour and Diftinction; particularly, when he left the Kingdom, fhe bore him Company in Perfon to Dover, and having appointed a moft fplendid Retinue of Nobles and Gentlemen to wait upon him to his new Government; I find that Ralegh was alfo among this grand Affembly. They attended the Duke to Antwerp, where, making a moft magnificent Proceffion, he was created Duke of Brabant, &c. and invefted with his Charge. Ralegh feems not only to have staid there fome Time after the Lord Admiral Howard, Leicefter, young Sidney, and the reft were return'd; but, through the Opportunity of being perfonally known to the Prince of Orange, honoured with fome special Acknowledgments from him to the Queen of England. And Ralegh mentions thus much himself, in a Difcourfe he wrote many Years afterwards; wherein, fpeaking of the Hollanders flourishing State, he lays down, as the firft Cause thereof, the Favour and Affistance granted them by this Crown; which, fays he, the late worthy and famous Prince of Orange did always acknowledge; and in the Year 1582, when I tek my Leave of him at Antwerp, after the Return of the Earl of Leicester into England, and Monfieur's Arrival there; when be delivered me bis Letters to her Majefty, he prayed me to say to the Queen from him, Sub umbra alarum tuarum protegimur: For certainly (fays he) they had wither'd in the Bud, and funk in the Beginning of their Navigation, had not her Majefty affifted them. Towards the End of August, this last mentioned Year, the Lord Grey refign'd the Sword of Ireland, after he had been two Years Deputy in that Kingdom; and this must be the Time, that Difpute were John Stubbs and William Page; and that Sentence was executed on them at Westminster, November 3. 1581. Vide Stow's Chronicles and Camden's Annals in those Years. 3 between between him and Ralegh was brought to a Hearing, of which Authors have fo blindly written. Sir Robert Naunton is confident, that among the fecond Causes of Ralegh's Growth (not denying, or rather acquiefcing in bis Actions and Accomplishments to have been the first) that Variance between him and the Lord Grey, in his Defcent into Ireland, was a Principal; for it drew them both over (fays he) to the Council-table, there to plead their Caufe; where (what Advantage he had in the Caufe, my faid Author knew not, but fays) he had much the better in telling of his Tale; and fo much, that the Queen and the Lords took no flight Mark of the Man and his Parts; for from thence he came to be known, and t have Access to the Queen and the Lords. Now if this Author is fo defective, as not to have known the Caufe or Subject of their Quarrel; or, that Ralegb, leaving Ireland long before the Lord Grey, was not likely to be drawn over together with him to the Council table; how much more muft those Writers following him be fo, who have confused this Matter with feveral other Particulars; though they seem to have had no other Authority? One of them fays, Ralegh had in Deed, but not in Truth, the better by the Tongue; and infinuates (with great Caution and Delicacy he thought, no Doubt) that the Queen' had been told fomething fo engaging of Ralegh, befides his Advantage in Pleading, that it was not to be mentioned; as if any of her Courtiers dared to fay any Thing to the Queen's Face, which this anonymous Writer, near fifty Years after her Death, would be either asham'd or afraid to repeat. A later Writer makes fuch Diftinctions of Ralegh's extraordinary Behaviour in this Difpute, as if he had been at the Counciltable, and seen as well as heard him. And another, after them all, has found out the Cause of this Difference between them to be Captain Zouch's Preferment. But paffing these over, our Author Naunton goes on; and tho' he does not determine whether the Lord Leicester had then caft in a good Word for Ralegh to the Queen; yet fays, it is true, that he had gotten the Queen's Ear at a Trice, and he began to be taken with his Elocution, and loved to bear his reafons to ber Demands; and the Truth is, he took him for a Kind of Oracle, which nettled them all; yea, those he relied on, began to take this bis fudden Favour for an Alarm; to be fenfible of their own Supplantation, and to project bis ; → which made him shortly after fing, Fortune my Foe, &c. It is hinted to us fomewhat more exprefly, by another Court-writer of those Times, that the Earl of Leicester befriended Ralegh (perhaps through his Friendship with young Sidney, that Earl's worthily beloved Nephew) in his firft Advancement at Court; and that being willing, for his own Ease, to bestow handsomely upon another fome Part of the Pains, and perhaps of the Envy, to which a long indulgent Fortune is obnoxious, either brought or let him into that promifing Sphere of Preferment; where the Earl foon found him fuch an Apprentice, as knew well enough how to fet up for himself. So that if the Earl of Suffex, who was * The Author of Sir Walter Ralegh's Life, in Lives English and Foreign, 1704. Vol. 1. p. 86, fays, that Ralegb's Difguft at the Deputy's preferring Zouch, grew to a Difference between him and the faid Lord Grey, which was referr'd by the Council of War in Ireland to that in England; and there decided in Ralegh's Favour; the folliciting of which Business was the true Caufe of his leaving Ireland. But he quotes no Authority; and I think by what is before faid of the Matter, this true Caufe will appear a groundless Conjecture; at leaft lefs probable, than what might perhaps be drawn from Spenfer's View of Ireland, Vol. 6. p, 1609. Leicester's Antagonist, had any Hand in Ralegh's Rife, as fome later Writers of lefs Authority have fuggefted, it seems to have been afterwards, when Ralegh's courtly Splendor was fomewhat obftruct ed; and Leicester meant to allay it, by interpofing the young Earl of Effex; for Ralegh continued, during that Storm, in fome Luftre of a favoured Man, like Billows which fink but by Degrees, even when the Wind is down that firft ftirr'd them. But this we shall obferve as we go on, that in all the different Aspects or Conjunctions of Intereft, thro' the Access or Change of new Favourites in this long Reign, none were lefs immerg'd by the Smiles of the Court, in the Luxuries and Vanities of it, nor more animated by its Frowns to the enterprifing of publick and fuperior Difficulties for the Honour and Aggrandifement of his Country. Not that he fet out to Sea, but when he had defpaired of raifing himself on Shore; for these publick Enterprizes were rooted fo early in Ralegh's afpiring Mind, that we perceive, even now, before Factions at Court could drive him from the Land, or Preferments and Grants from the Crown enable him for the Sea; that he had built at his own Expence, to profecute them, a ftrong handfome Ship, which was named Bark Ralegh, of two hundred Ton Burden. And now that the fix Years Period of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Patent grew fhort, four of them being elaps'd, he thought it high Time to make a new Attempt in Perfon (fince his Affignments had proved of little Confequence) at thofe Discoveries he had before fail'd in, that he might confirm by Experience what he had fo excellently advanced in Theory. Accordingly, having fitted out a Fleet of four Ships, Ralegh alfo victuall'd, and mann'd out his before-mentioned, which was the largest |