Part 6 (1/2)
One had been run aground to save her company A thousand Spaniards had been slain or drowned Grenville wished to blow up his shattered hulk A majority of the handful of survivors preferred to accept the Spanish Admiral's terms They were that all lives should be spared, the crew be sent to England, and the better sort be released on payment of ransoalley, where he was chivalrously treated He lingered till September 13 or 14 in sore pain, which he disdained to betray Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch adventurer, as at the tile both frolish prisoners
He describes it briefly in a diary he kept He was told how the English adlasses between his teeth, after he had tossed off the contents The fragments he shile the blood ran out of his h, who has preserved Grenville's dying words: 'Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet ht, that hath fought for his country, Queen, religion, and honour'
[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Narrative_]
[Sidenote: _An Indictht have met Grenville's fate He took up the pen to celebrate his kinsland of the feats valour like his could accoht about the Isles of Azores_ was first published anonymously in November, 1591 Hakluyt reprinted it, as 'penned by Sir Walter Ralegh,' in his Collection of Voyages in 1599 Few finer specirandeur, and of generosity towards every one but Spaniards Of the commander-in-chief, Thoh's relations to the Howards, though always professionally intimate, were not always very friendly, either now or hereafter About the period of Grenville's death, in particular, there had been soh Ad October by Thomas Phelippes to Thomas Barnes, alludes to a quarrel and offer of coh was only the more careful on that account to do justice to a member of the family Howard, it seems, had been severely criticised for a supposed abandonh vindicated him from the calumny The admiral's first impulse had been to return within the harbour to succour Grenville It was a happy thing, in Ralegh's judgeness of the Spanish fleet would have crushed the English shi+ps to atoms; it had ill sorted with the discretion of a General to coe to assured destruction' But the real aiainst Spanish predominance in the Old and New Worlds Towards Grenville personally the behaviour of the Spaniards, it could not be denied, wasbut perfidy in their conduct otherwise They broke, he declares, their engagement to send the captives home Morrice FitzJohn of Desmond was allowed to endeavour to induce them to apostatize and enter the service of their enemy That was the Spanish systeabonds of all nations; by all kinds of devices to gratify covetousness of dos of Castile were the natural heirs of all the world' Yet 'what good, honour, or fortune ever man by them achieved, is unheard of or unwritten' 'The obedience even of the Turk is easy, and a liberty, in respect of the slavery and tyranny of Spain What have they done in Sicily, Naples, Milan, and the Low Countries?' 'In one only island, called Hispaniola, they have wasted three millions of the natural people, beside many millions else in other places of the Indies; a poor and harht have been won to his knowledge, as many of them were' 'Who, therefore, would repose trust in such a nation of ravenous strangers, and especially in these Spaniards, who lish blood than after the lives of any other people in Europe;' 'whose weakness we have discovered to the world' Historians, hoh has never been a favourite, treat as ain expressed for the millions of innocent led, ripped alive, by Spaniards, though as free by nature as any Christians There is no just reason to think hinity and a tone of chivalry to his , Protestant, political, commercial, of hatred and jealousy of Spain
Spain, he declared, was ever conspiring against us She had bought the aid of Denmark, Norway, the French Parliament-towns, the Irish and Scotch lish liberty of thought She tried to starve the rising English instinct for territorial expansion He suainst the Spanish eo, which everywhere they encountered He pointed out to thean to feel the appetite for wealth, the colonial treasury of Spain glittering in full view before theh's own country of the West, were conscious of all this Ralegh gave the sentiallant death Henceforth he never ceased to consecrate his energies and influence directly to the work of lowering the flag of Spain, and replacing it by that of England Fro of his career he had been a labourer in this field He now asserted his title to be the champion of his nation Previously he had usually striven by deputy Noas to display his personal prowess as a warrior and a great captain For years he was to be seen battling with Philip's e his strongholds, bursting through his frontiers, and teaching Englishht divine His own countrymen did not at first accept his leadershi+p They affirmed his principle, but preferred that others than he should have the pri it Gradually coh popular odiurew to be identified with the double idea of English rivalry with Spain and of English naval supreht to be its representative is about to open But previously the curtain has to fall upon the courtier The conqueror at Cadiz, the explorer of Guiana, steps frorace which would have overwhelmed other men utterly, and served him as a foil
[Sidenote: _Proposed Expedition to Panama_]
[Sidenote: _Sails and returns_]
Philip replied to Lord Thomas Howard's unfortunate expedition by the equipment of a fleet of sixty shi+ps Plyh persuaded the Queen to parry the blow by striking at Panaathered in its harbour
Elizabeth contributed the Garland and Foresight Ralegh provided the Roebuck, and his elder brother, Carew Ralegh, the Galleon Ralegh Two shi+ps were equipped by the citizens of London Lord cu for an independent cruise Ultimately he joined with six vessels The Queen also invested 1800 in the adventure, and London 6000 Ralegh had been named General of the Fleet He exhausted all his resources to ensure success 'I protest,' he wrote, 'both my three years' pension of the Custom-house, and all I have besides, is in this journey' He had borrowed 11,000 at interest; and in addition was heavily in debt to the Crown In part discharge of his obligations, he assigned to the Queen the Ark Ralegh at the price of 5000 Calumny asserted that the apparent sale was a mere pretext for a present from the Treasury to him The preparations were still incomplete in February, 1592 He travelled to the West for additional stores When all was ready for departure westerly winds set in For many weeks the fleet eather-bound in the Thames Some time before it was able to move his own relation to it was become uncertain Elizabeth, he are, wished to keep hi to consent to a compromise
He wrote to Robert Cecil from Chatham on March 10: 'I have promised her Majesty, if I can persuade the companies to follow Sir Martin Frobisher, I will, without fail, return, and bring theh I dare not be known thereof to any creature' Certainly heof 'this cross weather' 'I am not able to live to row up and doith every tide froth on the 6th of May, 1592, the fleet was under sail with him on board On the 7th, he was overtaken by Frobisher with orders to coh, and Frobisher to co to construe the orders as optional in date, Ralegh proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre Thence, after weathering a terrific storm on May 11, he hied the plan of operations Half the fleet he stationed under Frobisher off the Spanish coast to distract the attention of the Spaniards The rest he sent to watch for the treasure fleet at the Azores For an attack on Panama the season was too late
CHAPTER X
IN THE TOWER THE GREAT CARACK (1592)
[Sidenote: _Elizabeth Throckmorton_]
Immediately on his return, if not before, he understood the reason of his recall He had written to Cecil on March 10: 'I mean not to coe, and I know not what
If any such thing were, I should have i; and therefore, I pray, believe it not, and I beseech you to suppress, what you can, any such malicious report For, I protest, there is none on the face of the earth that I would be fastened unto'
As soon as he reached London in June, he was thrown into the Tower He had see the plenitude of royal favour So lately as in January it had been shown by the grant of a fine estate in Dorset No official record is discoverable of the cause of his imprisonment Disobedience to the order to quit the fleet would have been a sufficient pretext It was not mentioned The imprisonment was a domestic punishment within her own fortress-palace, inflicted by the Queen as head of her household The true reason was his courtshi+p of Elizabeth, daughter to the Queen's devoted but turbulent servant and confidant, Sir Nicholas Throcke of fifty-seven, in Leicester's house His eldest son, Nicholas, was adopted by a ton, and became Sir Nicholas Carew Elizabeth Throckh, was appointed a maid of honour Her portrait proves her to have been handsoolden-haired Her h's life Never rittenletters than hers, in
[Sidenote: _Scantiness of Testimony_]
[Sidenote: _Hard to believe_]
The Captain of the Guard and she attended on the Queen together He made her an exception to his rule as to maids of honour, that, 'like witches, they can do hurt, but no good' He found her only too amiable Cah's criine vitiata, quam postea in uxorelish,Camden A letter from Sir Edward Stafford to Sir Anthony Bacon, with the ih's and Miss Throckmorton's names in a burst of exultation, natural to Essex's friends: 'If you have anything to do with Sir Walter Ralegh, or any love to make to Mrs
Throckmorton, at the Tower to-morrow you ht, as soe to send them thither' Stafford does not specify the offence The sole independent testile sentence of Camden's Yet posterity has had no option but to accept the account The error, if other courtiers had been the culprits, would have excited little surprise Elizabeth's maids of honour were not more beyond suspicion than Swift asserts Anne's to have been Essex's gallantries at Court, after as before his e, were notorious and many Lord Southampton and his bride were the subjects of a siossip treated it as a very ordinary peccadillo Cecil in February, 1601, tells Carew of the 'misfortune' of one of the maids, Mistress Fitton, with Lord Pembroke, as if it were a jest Both the culprits, he remarks, 'will dwell in the Tower a while'
His phrases show none of the horror they breathed when he spoke of Ralegh, and the Queen was likely to read thelish Court was pure in the tireatly under her successor Harington contrasts ood order, discretion, and sobriety' But no little licence was permitted, and the tales of it coh, and yet more of Elizabeth Throckmorton, the story startles still No evidence exists upon which he can justly be pronounced a libertine How she, refined, faithful, heroic, should have been led astray, is hardly intelligible She must have now been several years over twenty, probably twenty-eight or twenty-nine, and in her long after-life she bore herself as entitled to all social respect She was allowed it by every one, except her Mistress, who never restored her to favour By the Cecils she was treated with unfailing regard In the whole of her struggle, by her husband's side, and over his grave, for his and her son's rights, not a whisper was heard of the blot on her fair fah and she had not stood ined liaison was sie resented as such by the Queen, as, two years before, she had resented Essex's secret e to Sidney'sThat seems to have been asserted by their friends, at the first explosion of the scandal A letter, written on the eve of Ralegh's committal to the Tower, by one who manifestly did not hold the benevolent opinion, says, after a spitefully prophetic coh with his own
Hermit poor in pensive place obscure:
'It is affirmed that they are married; but the Queen is most fiercely incensed'
[Sidenote: _Harder to disbelieve_]