Part 12 (1/2)

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Egotish were limited to the extraction of this expression of assent Nowhere does he assert or ih accepted any present from him, or entered into any compact Yet Huation that Ralegh offered his services to France, and that the offer was repulsed It is a sample of the way in which he has been traduced Sully's evidence exhibits him in his invariable attitude of an adversary of Spain and Spanish pretensions It does not indicate the smallest tendency in hin influences

His mistake was the belief that he could by perseverance in In theory he understood, as he lays down in his History, that it is not sufficient to be ith a wise prince, valiant with a valiant, and just with a just; a courtier, ould have an estate in his prosperity, ether out of hie with the successor to the throne In practice none ever disobeyed this law of advanceotism often before had blinded him to the idiosyncrasies of others He seems to have beenthose of his present ruler He presunalize his accession by feats of arh spirit of James was the source from which he hoped to draw the motive force necessary for the accoainst the colonial empire of Spain

An accidental conjunction of circumstances enabled him to see speedily the effect of his atte his own martial propensities

CHAPTER XVIII

AWAITING TRIAL (July-November, 1603)

[Sidenote: _The Plots_]

We now enter the period of the plot and plot within plot in which Anthony Copley, the priests Williae Brooke and his brother Cobham, Sir Griffin Markham and his brothers, the Puritan Lord Grey of Wilton, and Sir Edward Parhaue, 'a dark kind of treason,' as Rushworth calls it, 'a shas to our story only so far as the cross h His slender relation to it is as hard to fix as a cobweb or a nighte his part in it was, as obsolete Echard says, 'all riddle and mystery' Cobha, Minister to the Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabel, joint sovereigns of the Low Countries The Infanta was that daughter of Philip II whose clailish throne Jesuits had asserted, and Essex had affected to fear During the late reign Cobha with the Count both openly and secretly De la Fayle and an Antwerp es to and fro In November, 1602, the Count had invited Cobham to co advocate After Jaain Cobha hoas to reply James answered that Cobha of the Council To Lennox he rerily that Cobham was ht of going abroad; but Cecil dissuaded hi sent a third letter by de la Fayle

[Sidenote: _Cobha this period Cobha the purchase of a fee farh's advice He had confided to Ralegh 4000 worth of jewels to coh commonly about private affairs, would sometimes turn upon questions of State Before the Queen's death, it h would have co, if he ever listened, without disapproval to Cobham's most intemperate assertions in favour of the title of Arabella, and against that of James The evidence adduced of their talk on politics after the King's accession contains no reference to any such topic Even if its subject then had been iainst Ralegh Thus, one day at dinner, in Cobham's house at Blackfriars, Cobham declared that the Count, when he caureat suiven to certain Councillors for their aid Cecil and Lord Mar were instanced by hih Ralegh, by his own account, which was not contradicted by other testimony, only listened When he was taxed at his trial with having given ear to matters he had not to deal in, he exclai of adversity showed him that in prudence he should have re 'Venture not thy estate,' he wrote in his _Instructions to his Son and to Posterity_, 'with any of those great ones that shall attes, for thou shalt be sure to be part with theer, but not in the honour I myself know it, and have tasted it in all the course of ret, to the hearing of Cobhaht have seemed, unless for the result, i_]

Early in June the Count arrived in London, under the escort of Henry Howard Cobhaht Cobhah supped with Cobha accompanied by him back to Durhaed to have gone privily with la Renzi to obtain a pro to Cecil's narrative in the following August to Sir Tho that if he would provide four or five hundred thousand crowns, 'he could show him a better way to prosper than by peace' Scaraation, wrote ho promised 300,000 ducats in cash, and an equal suh subsequently was accused of having on this occasion been offered money by Cobham to be a promoter of peace Cobhaed that Ralegh had bargained for 1500 a year for divulging Court secrets How Ralegh, out of favour and wholly eclipsed, was to learn theh mentioned subsequently he had noticed from aof Durha him was rowed past his own mansion at Blackfriars He went to St Saviour's, on the other side of the river There la Renzi was known to be residing This is the suuilt was to be constructed

[Sidenote: _The 'Surprising Treason'_]

He had attended the Court to Windsor There he heard of the arrest of Anthony Copley in Sussex on July 6 Fro to Cecil at the trial, the first discovery of the Bye or Surprising Treason cah infore Brooke was arrested on the 14th, and the arrests of Lord Grey of Wilton and Sir Griffin Markhah was on the Terrace at Windsor The King was preparing to hunt, and Ralegh aiting to join the cavalcade Cecil ca, stay The Lords in the Chamber, Cecil said, had soated on the intercourse of Cobham with the Count, and how ave his story of the transaction He said he was exa the conspiracy to surprise and coerce the King; next, about plotting for Arabella; thirdly, about practices with the Lord Cobham He added: 'It is true I suspected that Lord Cobha since he held that course with him in the Low Countries, as ell known toahiht that was the tiave intimation thereof But I illed byat the first coive him occasion of suspicion Wherefore I wrote to the Lord Cecil that if la Renzi were not taken the matter would not be discovered Yet, if he were then apprehended, it would give matter of suspicion to the Lord Cobha presently shown to the Lord Cobham, he spake bitterly of me; yet, ere he came to the stairs' foot, he repented hi'

Ralegh's account of the ht have been that Cobha did not seem to him of much i the possible prejudice to his friend, volunteered his services in clearing it up

When it was discovered to be deadly, or had been inflated into an appearance of capital criminality, his letter to Cecil was employed to represent to Cobham an act, it must be admitted, at best of not very friendly officiousness as black treachery His suggestion to Cecil is in any case inconsistent with consciousness of a guilty connexion with treason, if there were treason nobody of the least sagacity, much less the 'h, if he had been concerned in a plot, and if his ile person, would have been so foolish as to provoke his one accoh in Confinee by Keymis_]

From the examination at Windsor he returned a prisoner, confined to his own house Soh Captain Key under restraint, he could not come himself, and to mention what he had done with Mr Attorney in the iven hie the business of the fee far from the Crown He had added that he 'had cleared him,' which was, he asserted, true, as he had remarked to Cecil that he believed Cobham had no concern with the plot of the priests

Cecil's stateh's exa to Cecil, Ralegh was not exah Cobhah had been exaed, sent Key him, and that he had cleared hih not by Cecil, to have added verbally, as if froood comfort, for one witness could not condeh denied positively that any such e caland frorace of Chief Justice coke_, condemns this as 'an unlucky falsehood' His reason for the violent charge is that he does not suppose so loyal a friend as Key calumny Keymis would not have invented it to injure; he may, in the hope that the effect would be beneficial, have repeated to Cobhah; or Cobhah without any authority to that purport from Keymis The former hypothesis is not inconsistent with the character of the er Key he bore imprisonment in the Tower and Fleet, from which he was not released till December 31, 1603 He was a brave and loyal follower, but not very prudent, as after-events evinced If the prosecution thought it could prove that he really used the words as froe that it did not venture to produce him in court to testify to it

Cobhah's allusion to his dealings with Arenberg was not needed to direct it against hie It had been remarked by Beaumont, the French Ambassador, in the previous May that he could scarcelyhim as a traitor He was not likely to have been reticent on his relations with the Archduke's envoy He was examined before the Privy Council several times at Richmond after July 15 On July 20 he confessed that he had asked Arenberg to procure five or six hundred thousand crowns for distribution ao on, after an intervieith the Archduke in the Netherlands, and seek theof Spain

From Spain he intended, if the report of his examination can be credited, to return hoh With him he meant to discuss the application of the money So far his stateh to abet the design It showed no present co to the official narrative, 'a note under Ralegh's hand was shown to Examinate Exa, ”O, Traitor! O, Villain! I will now tell you all the truth” And then said that he had never entered into these courses but by Ralegh's instigation; and that he would never let hih of plots and invasions, and said he feared when he had hi

Convinced believers in Ralegh's duplicity will accept as satisfactory confirmation of that extraordinary apprehension an opinion attributed by Aubrey to Lord Southah joined the conspiracy in order to buy his peace by betraying it, and had scheht secure the a web for Ralegh_]

[Sidenote: _Extorted Evidence_]

By this tih had been collected froiven over to one or more Commissioners to worry into confessions Sir Williah, as of others It was Waad who had broken open Queen Mary's cabinet at Chartley Hall He was fitted for any dirty work Keymis also had been arrested, and was exah's communications with Cobham

They told him he deserved the rack Waad hereafter denied that they ever 'threatened hih had been in Cobha, and sent others to him The contents of the volu sorted, and distributed, or, reluctantly, discarded Any answers reflecting on another, particularly if reflecting on Ralegh, were carefully put aside, to fill gaps in the direct evidence against hi to Sir William Waad, 'confidently thinketh what his brother knoas known to the other' On July 17, Brooke said that the conspirators ah a fit man to be of the action No account was iven hiround that whatever Cobhaust, Brooke affirh and Cobha 'with all his cubs' Watson mentioned that he and Brooke, and apparently Copley, had consulted concerning Sir Walter's surprising of the King's fleet Copley reported a re stirs in Scotland cah's head Watson had said of an assembly at Cobham's house reported to him by Brooke, that, beside Brooke and Cobhah were there, and showed every one of thereat discontent, but especially the two Lords

My Lord Cobha of his Majesty and all his Royal issue both of crown, kingdom, life, and all at once; and my Lord Grey, to use Master Brooke's oords, uttered nothing but treason at every word At a subsequent examination Watson stated to Sir Williareat mass of money reported to be at the disposal of the Jesuits was,It was iland to raise so much of themselves Brooke, moreover, it was recorded, had stated that his brother, Cobham, told hih were on the Main By the Main was signified the dethronement of James in favour of Arabella

[Sidenote: _Attempt at Suicide_]