144 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
one who should be named in them from going to Scotland to escort 
his Majesty to the English throne. One of these warrants he 
prudently served upon Raleigh, who lost his temper, and was 
indiscreet enough to write to the king a letter condemning Cecil's 
conduct, and explaining that that great minister, though he was 
now endeavouring to curry favour with Essex's followers, was 
mainly responsible for the Earl's execution. 
Erom this time Raleigh's fall was decreed. He did not improve 
his position by asking the King to give him 2,000 men wherewith 
to make a descent upon Spain ; for James was a man of peace, and 
moreover a great coward. James had been scarcely three months 
on the throne when Ealeigh, gorgeously attired to accompany the 
King in a riding party, was arrested by Cecil on the great terrace 
at Windsor on a charge of treason, and forthwith taken off to the 
council chamber. ]STo doubt a treasonable plot was being hatched 
by Lord Cobham, his brother, George Brook, and others ; and no 
doubt Cobham and Raleigh had been always on intimate terms ; 
but there is no evidence whatever to implicate Raleigh in the 
conspiracy, which was to a great extent promoted by the Jesuits, 
and involved a Spanish alliance, two circumstances sufficient of 
themselves to prove the absurdity of the charge. Cecil, however, 
had determined upon Raleigh's ruin, and he contrived with great 
adroitness to make a transaction which is the best evidence of his 
scrupulous loyalty the means of effecting his destruction. Raleigh 
had felt convinced before Cobham's disclosure that some treason 
was hatching, and had confided his suspicions in a letter to Cecil. 
This letter Cecil showed to Cobham, who in his anger accused 
Raleigh of being the principal conspirator. Subsequently he re- 
tracted his accusation, but was induced by the hope of pardon to 
repeat it; then he again retracted, and again repeated it. " Poor 
mean soul!" as Raleigh calls him. Yet it was on his entirely 
unsupported evidence that Raleigh was brought to trial at Win- 
chester and condemned. Cecil himself was one of the commissioners 
appointed to try him, and the jury was of course packed. They 
were afraid to put Cobham in the witness-box, so they proceeded 
entirely by his letters and depositions. Sir Edward Coke, who 
conducted the prosecution, was as usual most insolent and abusive. 
Raleigh defended himself with the greatest patience and ability ; 
in particular he appealed most eloquently to his services against 
Spain. He came into court, with the odium attaching to Essex's 
