Part 19 (1/2)

Ralegh was liberated expressly that he ht work out his Guiana plans

He was not pardoned A royal coust, 1616

He had understood that he was to have a commission under the Great Seal, which would be addressed to hih he and others often seeotten the difference, it was under the Privy Seal, and he was described as plain 'Sir Walter Ralegh'

The honorary epithets are known to have been inserted originally, and afterwards erased Similarly, in a warrant for the payment to him in November, 1617, of the statutable bounty of 700 crowns for his construction of the Destiny, an erasure precedes his name The space it covers would suffice for the expression, 'our well-beloved subject,'

usual in such grants The withholding at any rate of a pardon excited apprehensions It was matter of coh had left the Tower, and was to go to Guiana, but 'remains unpardoned until his return' Merchants, it was stated, required security, 'Sir Walter Ralegh being under the peril of the law,'

that they should enjoy the benefits of the expedition His kins to serve only 'if they ht be commanded by none but himself' Their scruples had to be pacified by the issue of an express licence to hi to the south of America, and elsewhere within Ae people, with shi+pping, weapons and ordnance He was authorised to keep gold, silver, and other goods which he should bring back, the fifth part of the gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones, with all custo truly paid to the Crown Further, his Majesty, of his h sole co to such orders as he shall establish in cases capital, criminal, and civil, and to exercise eneral by sea or land' The coh's old Guiana con lands It too is reported to have been originally inserted, and to have been struck out by James

[Sidenote: _Unpardoned_]

[Sidenote: _Advice froh must, like his friends and creditors, have been conscious of the risk of sailing without a pardon Carew Ralegh reed to procure one for hi to the _Observations on Sanderson's History_, the benefit was offered by St

John and Edward Villiers jointly, and for as little as 700 A right to abandon the voyage if he pleased was to have been added Bacon's name is connected with the matter Incidentally Bacon, who had been appointed Lord Keeper on March 7, 1617, is known to have h after his release He hi in his upper roo in Gray's Inn walks with Sir Walter Ralegh a good while' On the authority of Carew Ralegh, as quoted in a letter to the latter from James Howell in the _Familiar Letters_, he is reported, possibly on this occasion, to have persuaded Ralegh to save his money, and trust to the implication of a pardon to be inferred from the royal commission 'Money,' said the Lord Keeper, 'is the knee-tie Spare your money in this particular; for, upon my life, you have a sufficient pardon for all that is past already, the King having under his Great Seal iven you power of ood a pardon for all forland can afford you'

That is the view of so sound a constitutional lawyer as Hallam His reason for the contention is that aauthority But it can scarcely be argued as a point of law, and it is difficult to believe that a Lord Keeper should have volunteered a dogh, as will hereafter be seen, Sir Julius Caesar, as Master of the Rolls, fell into the same mistake in 1618, the misdescription, imputed to Bacon, of the Commission as under the Great Seal, of itself casts doubt upon the anecdote On the whole, there is no sufficient cause for disputing the statement in the _Declaration_ of 1618, that Jah, and to hold hih rant him pardon for his former treasons'

In the course of this or another conversation, Bacon, according to Sir Thoh himself, inquired, 'What will you do, if, after all this expenditure, you old mine?' The reply was: 'We will look after the Plate Fleet, to be sure' 'But then,' reh is alleged to have cried, 'who ever heard ofpirates for millions!' The Mexican fleet for 1618 is in fact computed to have conveyed treasure to the ah never distinguished for cautious speech, should have been so intemperately rash Such a confession to Bacon, known to be Winwood's antagonist, ould rejoice to have ground for thwarting the anti-Spanish party at Court, is particularly unlikely Mr Spedding hih's reply as 'a playful diversion of an inconvenient question' As a serious state is not the more authentic that it emanates from Wilson Naturally it has been accepted by writers for whoh is a mere buccaneer

[Sidenote: _Count Gondomar_]

From the first it is evident that Spain and the Spanish faction at the English Court laboured to place upon the expedition the construction which Ralegh's apocryphal outburst to Bacon would warrant Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, the Ambassador of Spain, better known by the title, not yet his, of Count Gondoh in his _Apology_ virtually adh to and froold he should find The condition he imposed was that the expedition should be liave in his paper for declining the arrangement, was that he did not trust sufficiently to the Ao unarmed In view of the way Spaniards were in the habit of treating English visitors, he clearly could not with prudence At all events, for its refusal, if the offer were ever made in a practicable shape, James and his Governht, if they chose, have withdrawn his coood Spaniard He had a patriotic hatred for 'the old pirate bred under the English virago, and by her fleshed in Spanish blood and ruin' His influence with James was boundless He could 'pipe Jaestures' They were thefrom their contrast with his lank, austere aspect Jaant extent, according to his own incredible letter in 1622 fro appointed him a member '_non seulement de votre Conseil d'etat, mais du Cabinet interieur_'

[Sidenote: _Disclosures to the Spanish Aland the key to a fah's enterprise altogether

So late as the middle of March, 1617, Chamberlain wrote to Carleton that the Spanish Ah overthrown it' If he could not nip the undertaking in the bud, he had h'sthe Spanish Court how to h was ordered to explain the details of his sche to Carew Ralegh, whose inforh, Ja to keep secret these accounts of the progra, was enabled to study the whole, whatever its value

He forwarded all particulars to Madrid When the fleet had been surveyed by the Admiralty, he had a copy of the official report He sent it by express to his Government, which despatched it with instructions to Aent at the Spanish Court, was directed to pro in his _Declaration_ of 1618 said he had taken 'order that he and all those that went in his coood security to behave the lamented, was frustrated by 'every one of the principals that were in the voyage putting in security one for another' There even was a story that the Court had obliged Lords Arundel and Peht be rendered personally liable for any wrong The foundation for this report may have been that, late in March, as the Destiny was about to sail fronostications of evil, retailed theh's supporters at the Board reassured hiive security that no har of Spain James, several weeks earlier, at the end of January, had soleh he had deterh acted in it in contravention of his instructions, he should pay for his disobedience with his head

[Sidenote: _Ralegh's preparations against Violence_]

[Sidenote: _The Coh and his friends knew of the care taken to guard Spanish interests at his cost He had told Carew, as Carerites to Roe, that 'the alarm of his journey had flown into Spain, and sea forces were prepared to lie for hi appalled, since, as Careas inforood fleet, and would be able to land five or as many as seven hundred men; 'which will be a co so poorly planted' Carew evidently, it will be seen, assuht lawfully meet it in kind Jah ca to be a match in battle for the Spaniards; and his party in the Council with equal earnestness tried to balance the weight there of Spain by another influence Mr Secretary Winished in all ways to break with Spain He urged Ralegh to capture the Mexico fleet In support of his policy he favoured an intih to the Comte des Marets, the French Arown apprehensive of a sudden diversion of Ralegh's forces to an attack on St Valery in the interest of the Huguenots against the Queen Mother He was glad, therefore, of an opportunity of judging for hih's views They may already have had communication by letter

French influence had been, it is thought, eh's behalf while he was in the Tower He had never ceased to uenots, and the French Court appreciated the importance in certain circumstances of his services The Spanish, Savoyard, and Venetian Envoys had inspected his squadron On March 15, 1617, the Count too visited the Destiny He reported the interview to Richelieu a few days later He soon satisfied hih that the French Court had sy and unjust imprisonment, and the confiscation of his property From another quarter he had heard, he wrote to Richelieu, that Ralegh especially resented the gift of Sherborne to Sir John Digby, who lately had returned froh was discontented with Jah expressed his desire for more talk at a less inconvenient time and place

Richelieu had recently described hirand ing his overtures A subsequent intervieas held, and described in a despatch several weeks after theIf the Count's k thinks, deceive hi n, I have ood success, to leaveyour master the first offer of what shall fall under my power'

Doubtless there was just so much truth in the Count's report that a profusion of compliments passed Des Marets would express his astonishret that France had not enjoyed the happiness of possessing such a hero, and the opportunity of rewarding hih would respond in the same key, and assure his French sympathiser that, if an occasion presented itself, he ell inclined to serve the noblest Court in Europe He is not to be held responsible for the positive summary the Frenchman dressed up of the conversation weeks after it had passed to show Ralegh's effusiveness and his own caution Des Marets himself did not at the tih could betake himself to no quarter in which he would receive ht it well,' wrote des Marets, 'to give hie will havewith France_]

Before Ralegh left English waters he had further negotiations with France A Frenche, which commenced March 28, 1617, from the Thames to Plymouth By this man he sent in May a letter to a M de Bisseaux, a French Councillor of State He wrote that he had coreed on between theh at the e, he said, could explain his plan He asked for a patent, promised, he said, by Admiral de Montmorency, which would empower him to enter a French port, 'avec tous les ports, navires, equipages, et biens, par lui traites ou conquis'

One Belle reported hie's associate In that character he obtained Ralegh's letter, and carried it with other papers, and a map of Guiana, to Madrid There he told the story in the May of the following year Ralegh's letter to Bisseaux in his handwriting has been seen and copied at Simancas If he ever received, as is inferred from his admissions to the Royal Commissioners next year, and to Sir Thomas Wilson, the warrant he asked, it was a permit from the French Admiralty It was not a commission from the French Crown, and, whatever it was, Jarant

[Sidenote: _Mystifications_]

The whole secret history of the preliled skein The negotiations of Ralegh with France were certainly known to Winwood, and, there can be little doubt, to Ja by letter in October, 1618, with privity and assent to the arrangee, for the co-operation of French shi+ps against the Spaniards at the mouth of the Orinoko He was not contradicted Winwood and his section of the Council in good faith preferred a French to a Spanish coency of war James and the pro-Spanish party concurred for the ainst Spain, in order to push Spain into the English alliance which they coveted Froh to treat with France

That Spain ated to an intih he never received a regular French commission, it was allowed to be supposed that one had been issued to him No French shi+ps were fitted out to aid hi, it hts than the surrender of territory he ame of mystification devised for one purpose by Winwood, and, for a different purpose, joined in by Jaive Spain cause to fancy its foe was being unchained to do his worst against it at his own discretion, and by any agency he chose, unless it should coh but imperfectly understood, was that it should be played at his especial peril He was suffered to concert ainst another, at the direct instance of a leading Minister, and with the connivance of the King hiue, and knew as much as his indolence pered to know so , as not to be in a position on an exigency to disavow the whole This was his idea of state-craft

The negotiation with the French Government was but one of the threads in the skein James and his advisers were in a fran adventure had a chance of securing their support Ralegh, and the popular excitement which had wafted him from a prison to an Admiral's command, were pawns moved by the political speculators of the Court for their own purposes Wild rumours circulated of objects to which the expedition was about really to be directed The circumstances of the expedition, the character of its chief, his sudden liberation, and the trust reposed in hih Continental thought reatest of h since with an indifference more bitter than censure or reproach, it was very far from indifferent in 1617 At hoh

They ridiculed the notion that, after the iniquitous treatment he had experienced, he would have the folly to come back Friends apparently were not entirely free froht be induced, if he failed, to shake the dust of an ungrateful kingdo earnestly dissuaded hi to any temptation to a self-banishment, which assuredly he never contemplated