Part 6 (1/2)

Raleigh was in the hen the Queen died, and he had no opportunity ofthe rush for the north which e of April King Jah, in company with his old comrade Sir Robert Crosse, met him on his southward journey It was necessary that he should ask the new monarch for a continuation of his appointments in Devon and Cornwall; his posts at Court he had probably made up hishad sent up to be signed by Cecil, no to h, and this was of evil oh did notthe cause of his disobedience James, it is said, adainst the late Queen's favourite; 'on my soul, man,'

he said, 'I have heard but _rawly_ of thee' Raleigh was promised letters of continuance for the Stannaries, but arned to take no ard to the woods and parks of the Duchy of Cornwall until further orders After the first rough greeting, James was fairly civil, but on April 25 privately desired Sir Thoh's business speedily, and send hih was infor had chosen Sir Thomas Erskine to be Captain of the Guard

It was thein the world that James should select an old friend and a Scotchh, as the Council Book records, 'in a very humble manner did submit himself'

To show that no injury to his fortunes was intended, the King was pleased to reed on Raleigh's salary as Governor of Jersey There does not seeh was led into any ies Mr Gardiner appears to put some faith in a despatch of Beauh was in such a rage at the loss of one of his offices, that he rushed into the King's presence, and poured out accusations of treason against Cecil I cannot but disbelieve this story; the evidence all goes to prove that he still regarded Cecil, a the crowd of his enemies, as at least half his friend On May 13, Cecil was raised to the peerage, as a sign of royal favour

Lady Raleigh had always regretted the carelessness hich her husband expended money upon Durha a proper lease of it Her prognostications of evil were soon fulfilled James I was hardly safe on his throne before the Bishop of Durham demanded the restitution of the ancient town palace of his see

On May 31, 1603, a royal warrant announced that Durham House was to be restored to the Bishop--'the said dwellers in it having no right to the saive quiet possession of the house to such as the Bishop h, ed to be allowed to stay until Michaelmas

The Bishop considered this very unreasonable, and would grant hih appealed to the Lords Co that he had spent 2,000_l_ on the house, and that 'the poorest artificer in London hath a quarter's warning given hi us a notion of Raleigh's customary retinue, that he says he has already laid in provision for his London household of forty persons and nearly twenty horses 'Now to cast out ,' for the Bishop wanted to occupy the stables at once, 'and to remove my family and stuff in fourteen days after, is such a severe expulsion as hath not been offered to any man before this day' What beca he found for his faained no civility by his appeal That he was disturbed by the Bishop, and busily engaged in changing houses all through June, is not unimportant in connection with the accusation, at the trial, that he had spent soat Durham House

It was plain that he was not judicious in his behaviour to James At all times he had been an advocate of war rather than peace, even when peace was obviously needful Spain, too, ritten upon his heart, as Calais had been on Mary's, and even at this untoward juncture heears It is hardly conceivable that he should not know that James was deeply involved with pro had said, in the face of his welcoland, that he should not need the the for overtures fro of all this, and 's ear to urge his distasteful projects of a war On the last occasion when, so far as we know, Raleigh had an intervieith Jah's uncle, Sir Nicholas Carew, at Bedingfield Park It would seem that he had already placed in the royal hands theWar with Spain, and of the Protecting of the Netherlands_, and he offered to raise two thousand ainst Spain James I ainst who No doubt, too, long familiarity with Queen Elizabeth in the decline of her powers, had given Raleigh a

In July the King's Catholic troubles reached a head Watson's plot, involving Copley and the young Lord Grey de Wilton, occupied the Privy Council during that er brother of Lord Cobham's, was concerned in it The Brookes, it will be remembered, were the brothers-in-law of Cecil hied fro to us to note that Cobhah With extraordinary rapidity Raleigh his Copley was arrested on the 6th, and first exae Brooke, as arrested on the 14th Cobham, as busy on his duties as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, was brought up for examination on the 15th or 16th; and on the 17th,[9] Sir Walter Raleigh, who, it is said, had given infor Cobha to and fro on the great terrace at Windsor on the , when Cecil came to him and requested his presence in the Council Chamber What happened there is unknown, but it is plain aued that what George Brooke knew Cobhans What form the accusation finally took, we shall presently see When it was over Raleigh wrote a letter to the Council, in which he ard to offers made to Cobha, the ambassador of the Archduke Albert From the s of Durham House he had seen, he said, Cobhas in St Saviour's He probably felt hi that the Council already knew soht of later events, the writing of this letter rave mistake It was instantly shown, on the very next day, to Cobham, and doctored in such a way as to ratuitously betrayed hie Brooke said in exaht Sir Walter Raleigh a fit man to be of the action' This did not amount to much, but Brooke soon became more copious and protested a fuller tale day by day

Nothing, however, that could touch Raleigh was obtained from any witness until, on the 20th, Lord Cobhahtened by daily cross-examination, was shown the letter, or part of the letter, froh to Cecil to which reference has just been made He then broke out with, 'O traitor! O villain! noill I tell you all the truth!' and proceeded at once to say that 'he had never entered into those courses but by Raleigh's instigation, and that he would never let him alone!' This accusation he entirely retracted nine days later, in consequence of soh which had found its way froh was by this time safe in the Tower of London

It is most probable that he was taken thither on July 18, immediately after his arrest On the 20th, after Cobham's formal accusation, he was evidently more strictly confined, and it e that he attempted to commit suicide

He would be told of Cobha of the 21st; he would write the letter to his wife afteron the results of his position, and then would follow the scene that Cecil describes in a letter dated fifteen days later:

Although lodged and attended as well as in his own house, yet one afternoon, while divers of us were in the Tower, exah attempted to have murdered himself Whereof ere advertised, we ca to be unable to endure hisinnocency, with carelessness of life In that way, he had wounded hiht pap, but no waythat this was not a genuine atte into the y by misfortune, his brain and will had of late onceadventures by land and sea If James did oust him from his posts about the Court in favour of leal Scotchainst Cadiz, soinia or Guiana In the midst of such schemes, the blow of his unexpected arrest would colect, hardshi+ps, even death itself; but iraceful execution as the only end of it, that he was not at first prepared to endure He had tasted captivity in the Tower once before; he knew the intolerable tedium and fret of it; and the very prospect hts be only or mainly of himself He would reflect that if he were once conde but financial ruin and social obloquy would attend his wife and children; and this it hich inspired the passionate and pathetic letter which he addressed to Lady Raleigh just before he stabbed hih He was to breathe, indeed, for fifteen years ins thus distractedly:

Receive from thy unfortunate husband these his last lines: these the last words that ever thou shalt receive from him That I can live never to see thee and my child more! I cannot! I have desired God and disputed with my reason, but nature and compassion hath the victory That I can live to think how you are both left a spoil to my enemies, and that my name shall be a dishonour to my child! I cannot! I cannot endure the memory thereof Unfortunate woman, unfortunate child, comfort yourselves, trust God, and be contented with your poor estate I would have bettered it, if I had enjoyed a few years

He goes on to tell his wife that she is still young, and should ain; and then falls into a turows calmer, after a wild denunciation of Cobhaive, as he does:

Live huive my Lord Harry [Howard], for he was ht he would never forsake me in extremity I would not have done it him, God knows But do not thou know it, for he must be master of thy child, and may have compassion of him Be not dismayed, that I died in despair of God's mercies Strive not to dispute, but assure thyself that God has not left ether I know it is forbidden to destroy ourselves, but I trust it is forbidden in this sort--that we destroy not ourselves despairing of God's mercy

After an impassioned prayer, he speaks of his estate His debts, he confesses, are many, and as the latest of theinia then on the return voyage, the expedition in which Cecil had a share Then his shaain:

What will my poor servants think, at their return, when they hear I ae, to plant and discover upon his territory! O intolerable infahts I cannot live to think how I am divided, to think of the expectation of my enemies, the scorns I shall receive, the cruel words of lawyers, the infamous taunts and despites, to be made a wonder and a spectacle! I commend unto you e is his, and none of mine Let him have it, for God's cause He knohat is due to ood to Key for my sake For the rest I commend me to thee, and thee to God, and the Lord knows my sorrow to part from thee and my poor child But part I must I bless my poor child; and let him know his father was no traitor Be bold of my innocence, for God--to whom I offer life and soul--knows it And the Lord for ever keep thee, and give thee comfort in both worlds

There are few docu than this, but he suffered no return of this mood The pain of his wound and the weakness it produced quieted hiony of despair Meanwhile his treason was taken for granted, and he was stripped of his appointn the Wardenshi+p of the Stannaries to Sir Francis Godolphin, and the wine patent was given to the Earl of Nottingham, who behaved with scant courtesy to his old friend and coh for ten days at the Toas released froiven the Governorshi+p of Jersey, of which Raleigh was deprived On the next day, August 1, Sir George Harvey took Peyton's place as Lieutenant of the Tower, the last report froh's hurt is doing very well' It was evidently not at all severe, for on the 4th he was pronounced cured, 'both in body and mind' On the 3rd, De Beaumont, the French ambassador, had written confidentially to Henry IV that Raleigh gave out that this atteht not serve as a triumph to his enemies, whose power to put him to death, despite his innocence, he well knows'

On August 10 there had still been h or even Cobhah and Cobham were intimate with the plotters, and that they hadinto certain possibly treasonable negotiations with Austria On that day De Beaumont was inclined to think that both would be acquitted It does not seem that James was anxious to push ated by Suffolk, insisted on severity On August 13, Raleigh was again exaorously

A distinct stateained from him, to the effect that Cobham had offered hiland; Raleigh had answered, '”When I see the ht it one of his ordinary idle conceits' He insisted, however, that this conversation had nothing to do with Areing in London In spite of all precautions, it found its way into the outlying posts of the Tower Sir George Harvey sent away his fae of the State prisoners, abandoned the Raleigh's private letters by a man of the name of Mellersh, who had been Cobhah and Cobhauilt, it was absolutely necessary that each should have so

On Septee Brooke were indicted at Staines The indictment shows us for the first tih of plotting It is plainly put that he is charged with 'exciting rebellion against the King, and raising one Arabella Stuart to the Crown of England' Without going into vexed questions of the claim of this unhappy woman, we may remind ourselves that Arabella Stuart was Jahter of Charles Stuart, fifth Earl of Lennox, Darnley's elder brother Her father had died in 1576, soon after her birth About 1588 she had come up to London to be presented to Elizabeth, and on that occasion had aal quibble on which her clailand, whereas James as a Scotchman was supposed to be excluded Arabella was no pretender; her descent froaret, the sister of Henry VIII, was complete, and if James had died childless and she had survived him, it is difficult to see how her claim could have been avoided in favour of the Suffolk line Meantime she had no real claim, and no party in the country But Elizabeth, in one of her fantastic moods, had presented Arabella to the wife of a French ambassador, as 'she that will sometime be Lady Mistress here, even as I am' Before the Queen's death Arabella's very naround upon which Cobhah's, hopes were based

The jury ell packed with adverse nah's old and bitter enemy, Lord Howard of Bindon, now Earl of Suffolk The trial, probably on account of the terror caused by the ravages of the plague, was adjourned for nearly two h spent in the Tower Alreat wealth which was not by this time forfeited, was his cluster of estates at Sherborne He attempted to tie these up to his son, and his brother, Adrian Gilbert, and Cecil appears to have been a friend to Lady Raleigh in this h would be conde's Scotch favourites fro for his estates In October Cecil informed Sir James Elphinstone that he was at least the twelfth person who had already applied for the gift of Sherborne Fortunately Raleigh, as late as the sue, to draw up a conveyance of Sherborne to his son, and then to his brother, with a rent-charge of 200_l_ a year for life to Lady Raleigh For the present Cecil firmly refused to allow anyone to tamper with this conveyance, and Sherborne was the raft upon which the Raleighs sailed through the worst tempest of the trial Cecil undoubtedly retained a certain tenderness towards his old friend Lady Raleigh, and for her sake, rather than her husband's, he extended a sort of protection to thee to 'pity the name of your ancient friend on his poor little creature, which may live to honour you, that we may all lift up our hands and hearts in prayer for you and yours If you truly knew, you would pity your poor unfortunate friend, which relieth wholly on your honourable and wonted favour' Cecil listened, and almost relented

At first Cobham was not confined in the Tower, and before he cah was advised by so to Raleigh's account, he wrote first of all, 'You or I o to trial If I first, then your accusation is the only evidence against ain, and Cobhaood letter'