Part 9 (1/2)

She i that his influence was far greater than her oith the King, and her letter exists for the wonder of posterity She writes to her husband's favourite: 'My kind Dog,' for so the poor lady stoops to address him, 'if I have any power or credit with you, I pray you letsincerely and earnestly with the King that Sir Walter Raleigh's life haed to aid the Spanish alliance, and the Queen's letter was unavailing

On August 17 and on two subsequent occasions Raleigh was exa formally drawn up by Yelverton, the Attorney-General He was accused of having abused the King's confidence by setting out to find gold in aa piratical attack on a peaceful Spanish settle to capture the Mexican plate fleet, although he had been specially warned that he would take his life in his hands if he committed any one of these three faults It is hard to understand how Mr Edwards persuaded hies as 'a distinct falsehood' The syh's y_, should not, surely, blind us to the fact that in neither of these three matters was his action true or honest We have no particular account of his exa fro character He had tried tohimself on Spain, and he had to take the consequences

It was of great importance to the Government to understand why France had meddled in the matter The Council, therefore, summoned La Chesnee, the envoy who had h at Brentford and at Broad Street; but he denied the whole story, and said he never suggested flight to Raleigh So little inforained by the middle of September, that it was determined to eing office was Sir Tholish pensioners in the pay of Spain Thethat has ever been said of Stukely is that he was not quite such a scoundrel as Wilson On Septeh from Elizabeth's days, and was now Keeper of the State Papers, was supplied with 'convenient lodging within or near unto the chah' At the sauarded the prisoner hitherto, was relieved

Wilson's first act was not one of conciliation He deh should be turned out of his comfortable quarters in the Wardrobe Tower to make room for Wilson, who desired that the prisoner should have the smaller rooms above To this, and other dean to do his best to insinuate hiht seems to have succeeded We have a very full report of his conversations with Raleigh, but they add little to our knowledge, even if Wilson's evidence could be taken as gospel Raleigh ade, and his own proposal to seize the Mexican fleet; but both these points were already known to the Council

Towards the end of Septeht h wrote a confession to the King, in which he said that the French Governiven him a commission, that La Chesnee had three times offered him escape, and that he himself was in possession of important State secrets, of which he wouldwould pardon him This important document was found at Simancas, and first published in 1868 by Mr St John On the sa hi Raleigh at Madrid by executing him promptly in London As soon as this ultimatum arrived, James applied to the Commissioners to knoould be best to deal with the prisoner judicially Several lawyers assured hih was under sentence of death, and that therefore no trial was necessary; but James shrank from the scandal of apparent h's guilt that they advised the King to give him a public trial, under somewhat unusual fores, a few persons of rank being admitted as spectators; the conduct of the trial to be the sa in Westminster Hall On receipt of the despatch froh, whose presence was no longer required, was released froan on October 22 Mr Gardiner has printed in the _Camden Miscellany_ such notes of cross-examination as were preserved by Sir Julius Caesar, but they are very slight Raleigh seeland and Spain, and declared that he had confidently believed in the existence of the mine But he made no attempt to deny that in case theof the Mexican fleet At the close of the examination, Bacon,[13] in the nauilty of abusing the confidence of King Ja the subjects of Spain, and that he h was then taken back to the Tohere he was left in suspense for ten days Meanwhile the Justices of the King's Bench were desired to award execution upon the old Winchester sentence of 1603 It is thought that Jaain in public, but the judges said that he ht face to face with theh was roused fro froht out of the Tohich he never entered again He was taken so hastily that he had no time for his toilet, and his barber called out that his master had not coh's answer; and he continued, 'Dost thou know, Peter, any plaister that will set a ain, when it is off?'

When he caue that the Guiana co the sentence of 1603

He began to discuss anew his late voyage; but the Chief Justice, interrupting him, told him that he was to be executed for the old treason, not for this new one Raleigh then threw hi every way trapped and fettered; without referring to this appeal, the Chief Justice proceeded to award execution Raleigh was to be beheaded early nextin Old Palace Yard He entreated for a few days' respite, that hehad purposely left town that no petitions for delay ht reach him Bacon produced the warrant, which he had drawn up, and which bore the King's signature and the Great Seal

Raleigh was taken froh spirits, and ed hi He hiay and chatty, that his cousin Francis Thynne begged hirave lest his eneh answered, 'It is e it to h was a stranger, then attended him; and was somewhat scandalised at this flow of e hiht of it that I wondered at him When I told him that the dear servants of God, in better causes than his, had shrunk back and treave God thanks that he had never feared death' The good Dean was puzzled; but his final reflection was all to Raleigh's honour After the execution he reported that 'he was the most fearless of death that ever was known, and the most resolute and confident; yet with reverence and conscience'

It was late on Thursday evening, the 28th, that Lady Raleigh learned the position of affairs She had not dreamed that the case was so hopeless

She hastened to the Gate House, and until ether in conversation, she being consoled and strengthened by his calm Her last as that she had obtained permission to dispose of his body 'It is well, Bess,' he said, 'that thou mayst dispose of that dead, which thou hadst not always the disposing of when alive' And so, with a sh sat down to write his last verses:

Even such is time, that takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with earth and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days; But frorave, this dust, My God shall raise h was preparing for the horrors of the morrow She sent off this note to her brother, Sir Nicholas Carew:

I desire, good brother, that you will be pleased to let me bury the worthy body of h, in your church at Beddington, where I desire to be buried The Lords have given h they denied ht you with two or three of my men

Let me hear presently God hold me in my wits

There was probably soht that night to Beddington

In the ain

Raleigh, who had perhaps not gone to bed all night, had just finished a testamentary paper of defence Dr Tounson found him still very cheerful and merry, and adh talked very freely to the Dean, defending hin of Elizabeth He declared that the world would yet be persuaded of his innocence, and he once more scandalised the Dean by his truculent cheerfulness He ate a hearty breakfast, and smoked a pipe of tobacco It was now time to leave the Gate House; but before he did so, a cup of sack was brought to hih replied, 'I will answer you as did the felloho drank of St Giles' bowl as he went to Tyburn, ”It is good drink, if a ht stay by it”'

This excitement lasted without reaction until he reached the scaffold, whither he was led by the sheriffs, still attended by Dr Tounson As they passed through the vast throng of persons who had coh observed a very oldoff the rich night-cap of cut lace which he hi, 'Friend, you need this h was dressed in a black eown over a hare-coloured satin doublet and a black embroidered waistcoat He wore a ruff-band, a pair of black cut taffetas breeches, and ash-coloured silk stockings, thus coard for the occasion The multitude so pressed upon him, and he had walked with such an animated step, that when he ascended the scaffold, erect and s, he was observed to be quite out of breath

There are h's deportment at this final moment of his life In the place of these hackneyed narratives, we may perhaps quote the less-knoords of another bystander, the republican Sir John Elyot, as at that tiht In his _Monarchy of Man_, which remained in manuscript until 1879, Elyot says:

Take an exah, the e chronicle of fortitude All the preparations that are terrible presented to his eye, guards and officers about him, fetters and chains upon him, the scaffold and executioner before him, and then the axe, and more cruel expectation of his enemies, and what did all that work on the resolution of that worthy? Made it an impression of weak fear, or a distraction of his reason? Nothing so little did that great soul suffer, but gathered e upon either His mind became the clearer, as if already it had been freed froave an illustration to his courage, so that it changed the affection of his enemies, and turned their joy into sorrow, and allno doubt but this, whether death was more acceptable to him, or he more welcome unto death

At the s of Sir Randolph Carehich were opposite to the scaffold, Raleigh observed a cluster of gentlemen and noblemen, and in particular several of those who had been adventurers with hist others, the Earls of Arundel, Oxford, and Northampton That these old friends should hear distinctly what he had to say was his y for the weakness of his voice, and asked them to come down to him Arundel at once assented, and all the company at Carew's left the balcony, and came on to the scaffold, where those who had been intian his celebrated speech, of which he had left a brief draft signed in the Gate House There are extant several versions of this address, besides the one he signed In the excitement of the scene, he seeeniously, than in the solitude of the previous night His old love of publicity, of the open air, appeared in the first sentence:

I thank God that He has sent ht, and not in darkness I likewise thank God that He has suffered me to die before such an assembly of honourable witnesses, and not obscurely in the Tohere for the space of thirteen years together I have been oppressed with ue] hath not taken ht not, that I ht clear e, and leave behindand country

He was justly elated He knew that his resources were exhausted, his energies abated, and that pardon would now ation to oblivion He took his public execution with delight, as if it were a reatness of soul to perceive that nothing could possibly commend his career and character to posterity sosoliloquy His poere drawn together to their height; his intellect, which had lately see dirapher can recall but one occasion in Raleigh's life, and that theof St