RALEIGH IIALLENTANDO. 



807 



voyage to Newfoundland. On his return, Iin dis- 

 tinguishes! himself in Uie Irish rebellion, and was 

 rewarded for his services by a considerable estate 

 in Ireland. 1 1 is favour at court was advanced by 

 a well-known act of gallantry. The queen, in a 

 walk among a crowd of courtiers, having come to a 

 spot in which the path was obstructed by mire, 

 Raleigh immediately took oft' his rich plush cloak, 

 and spread it on the ground for a foot-cloth. In 

 1584, his active disposition was manifested in a 

 scheme for the discovery and settlement of those 

 parts of North America not already appropriated 

 by Christian states. By his interest, he obtained a 

 very extensive patent for this purpose; and, with 

 the help of friends, two ships were fitted out. These 

 vessels liaving carried home cargoes that sold well, 

 a second expedition of seven vessels followed, under 

 the command of Sir Richard Grenville, Raleigh's 

 kinsman. The latter enterprise terminated in the 

 settlement of Virginia, so called in honour of queen 

 Elizabeth, and is said to have first introduced tobac- 

 co and potatoes to Europe. In the mean time, he 

 was honoured with knighthood, and rewarded by 

 several lucrative grants, including a large share of 

 the forfeited Irish estates. He was one of the 

 council to whom the consideration of the best means 

 of opposing the Spanish armada was intrusted, and 

 was among the number of volunteers who joined 

 the English fleet with ships of their own. In 1589, 

 he accompanied the expelled king of Portugal in 

 his attempt to reinstate himself, for which service 

 he received several additional marks of favour and 

 emolument; for, although fond of glory, he was 

 almost equally so of gain. On his return from 

 Portugal, he visited Ireland, and contracted an inti- 

 macy with Spenser, who celebrated Sir Walter 

 under the title of the Shepherd of the Ocean, and to 

 .iis Faery Queen prefixed a letter to him explana- 

 tory of its plan and design. The latter, in return, 

 introduced the poet to Elizabeth. In 1592, he 

 commanded an expedition with a view of attacking 

 Panama ; but was recalled by the queen, and, soon 

 after, incurred her displeasure by an amour with 

 one of her maids of honour, the daughter of Sir 

 Nicholas Throckmorton. Although he made the 

 best reparation in his power, by marrying that lady, 

 he was imprisoned for some months, and banished 

 the queen's presence. To recover favour, he 

 planned an expedition to Guiana, in which he em- 

 barked in February, 1595, and reached the Orinoco; 

 but was obliged, by sickness and contrary winds, to 

 return, after having done little more than taken a 

 formal possession of the country in the name of 

 Elizabeth. In 1596, he had so far regained favour 

 that he had a naval command under the earl of 

 Essex, with whom a difference ensued, that laid the 

 foundation of a lasting enmity between them. Sir 

 Waiter was subsequently fully restored to the good 

 graces of Elizabeth, who nominated him to the gov- 

 ernment of Jersey. He witnessed the ruin of his 

 antagonist, the earl of Essex, whose execution he 

 urged, and personally viewed from a window in the 

 armoury. (See Devereuar.) The speedy death of 

 the queen, which this very catastrophe hastened, 

 put a period to his prosperity. James I., whom, 

 with some other courtiers, he sought to limit 

 in his power of introducing the Scots into Eng- 

 land, resented that attempt, and disliked him 

 as the enemy of his friend the earl of Essex. Al- 

 though received with external civility at court, 

 lie was tU-prived of his post of captain of the guards, 

 and evidently discountenanced. This treatment 

 preyed upon his high spirit; and, a conspiracy hav- 

 ing been formed for the purpose of placing upon 

 the throne the Jady Arabella Stuart, Sir \V aJter was 



accused of participating in it by lord Ccbhnm, to 

 whose idle proposals he had given ear, without ap- 

 proving them. By the base subservience of the 

 jury, he was brought in guilty of high treason, even 

 to the surprise of the attorney-general Coke him- 

 self, who declared that he had only charged him 

 with misprision of treason. Raleigh was reprieved, 

 and committed to the Tower, where his wife, at her 

 earnest solicitation,wasallowed to reside with him, 

 and where his youngest son was born. Though his 

 estates, in general, were preserved to him, the ra- 

 pacity of the king's minion, the infamous Car, seized 

 on his manor of Sherborne, upon a flaw found 

 in his prior conveyance of it to his son. It was 

 not until after twelve years' confinement that he ob- 

 tained his liberation, during which interval he com- 

 posed the greater part of his works, and especially 

 his History of the World. He was only released, 

 at last, by the advance of a large sum of money to 

 the new favourite Villiers (see Buckingham); and, 

 to retrieve his broken fortunes, he planned another 

 expedition to America. He obtained a patent un- 

 der the great seal for making a settlement in Gui- 

 ana ; but, in order to retain a power over him, the 

 king did not grant him a pardon for the sentence 

 passed upon him for his alleged treason. How far 

 Raleigh knowingly deceived the court by his repre- 

 sentations of rich discoveries, and gold mines, it is 

 impossible now to ascertain ; but, having reached 

 the Orinoco, he dispatched a portion of his force to 

 attack the new Spanish settlement of St. Thomas, 

 which was captured, with the loss of his eldest son. 

 The expected plunder, however, proved of little 

 value ; and Sir Walter, after liaving, in vain, at- 

 tempted to induce his captains to attack other Span- 

 ish settlements, arrived at Plymouth in July, 1618. 

 In the mean time, the Spanish ambassador had pro- 

 duced such an effect upon James (see James /), 

 who was seeking the hand of the Infanta for his 

 son Charles, that Raleigh was arrested, and com- 

 mitted to the Tower. James had reason to be of- 

 fended with the conduct of Raleigh against a power 

 in amity with himself, and might have tried him 

 for this new offence; but, with his usual meanness 

 and pusillanimity, determined to execute him on 

 his former sentence. Being brought before the 

 court of king's bench, his plea of an implied par- 

 don by his subsequent command was overruled ; 

 and, the doom of death being pronounced against 

 him, it was carried into execution the following day 

 (October 29, 1618), in Old Palace-yard. His be- 

 haviour at the scaffold was calm ; and, after address- 

 ing the people at some length in his own justifica- 

 tion, he received the stroke of death with perfect 

 composure. Thus fell sir Walter Raleigh, in the 

 sixty-sixth year of his age, by one of the most odi- 

 ous acts of the disgraceful reign of James I. As 

 a politician and public character, this eminent per- 

 son is open to much animadversion ; but, in extent 

 of capacity and vigour of mind, he had few equals, 

 even in an age of great men. His writings are on 

 a variety of topics, poetical, military, maritime, 

 geographical, political, and historical. Most of his 

 miscellaneous pieces have ceased to be interesting, 

 but his History of the World is one of the best spe- 

 cimens of the English of his day, being at once the 

 style of the statesman and the scholar. The com- 

 pass of the work did not admit fulness of narrative, 

 but he is often an acute and eloquent reasoner on 

 historical events. The best edition is that of Oldys 

 (173R, 2 vols.. fol.). Of his miscellaneous works, 

 an edition by Doctor Birch was published in 1748, 

 in two volumes, octavo. 



RALLEXTANDO, ALSO RITARDANDO, OR 

 LENTANDO (Italian), \i\ music, indicates that Uie 



