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value the life he could so easily part with. His judges there, at least, respected their state criminal, and they addressed him in a far different tone than he had fifteen years before listened to from Coke. Yelverton, the attorneygeneral, said, Sir Walter Rawleigh hath been as a star at which the world have gazed; but stars may fall, nay, they must fall, when they trouble the sphere where they abide.' And the lord chief justice noticed Rawleigh's great work: I know that you have been valiant and wise, and I doubt not but you retain both these virtues, for now you shall have occasion to use them. Your book is an admirable work; I would give you counsel, but I know you can apply unto yourself far better than I am able to give you.' But the judge ended with saying, 'execution is granted.' It was stifling Rawleigh with roses; and it was listening to fame from the voice of death.

"He declared, that now being old, sickly, and in disgrace, and 'certain were he allowed to live, to go to it again, life was wearisome to him, and all he intreated was to have leave to speak freely at his farewell, to satisfy the world that he was ever loyal to the king, and a true lover of the commonwealth for this he would seal with his blood.'

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Rawleigh, on his return to his prison, while some were deploring his fate, observed, that the world itself is but a larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution.'

"That last night of his exist

was occupied by writing what the letter-writer calls 'a remembrancer to be left with his

lady,' to acquaint the world with his sentiments, should he be denied their delivery from the scaffold, as he had been at the bar of the King's Bench. His lady visited him that night, and amidst her tears acquainted him, that she had obtained the favour of disposing of his body; to which he answered smiling, 'It is well, Bess, that thou mayst dispose of that dead, thou hadst not always the disposing of when it was alive.' At midnight he intreated her to leave him. It must have been then that, with unshaken fortitude, Rawleigh sat down to compose those verses on his death, which being short, the most appropriate may be repeated.

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"Even such is Time, that takes on trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with age and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wander'd all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days!" He has added two other lines expressive of his trust in his resurrection. Their authenticity is confirmed by the writer of the present letter, as well as another writer, inclosing half a dozen verses, which Sir Walter made the night before his death, to take his farewell of poetry, wherein he had been a scribbler even from his youth.' The inclosure is not now with the letter. Chamberlain, the writer, was an intelligent man of the world, but not imbued with any deep tincture of literature. On the same night Rawleigh wrote this distich on the candle burning dimly:

"Cowards fear to die; but courage stout, Rather than live in snuff, will be put out." At this solemn moment, before he lay down to rest, and at the instant of parting from his lady, with all his domestic affections

still warm, to express his feelings in verse was with him a natural effusion, and one to which he had long been used. It is peculiar in the fate of Rawleigh, that having before suffered a long imprisonment with an expectation of a public death, his mind had been accustomed to its contemplation, and had often dwelt on the event which was now passing. The soul, in its sudden departure, and its future state, is often the subject of his few poems; that most original one of The Farewell,'

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Go soul! the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand, &c.

is attributed to Rawleigh, though

on uncertain evidence. But an

other, entitled The Pilgrimage,' has this beautiful passage: "Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My staff of truth to walk upon, My scrip of joy immortal diet;

My bottle of salvation; My gown of glory, Hope's true gage; And thus I'll take my pilgrimageWhilst my soul, like a quiet Palmer, Travelleth towards the land of Heaven." "Rawleigh's cheerfulness was so remarkable, and his fearlessness of death so marked, that the Dean of Westminster, who attended him, at first wondering at the hero, reprehended the lightness of his manner; 'but Rawleigh gave God thanks that he had never feared death, for it was but an opinion and an imagination; and as for the manner of death, he had rather die so than of a burning fever; and that some might have made shows outwardly, but he felt the joy within. The Dean says, that he made no more of his death than if he had been to take a journey; Not,' said he, but that I am a great sinner, for I

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have been a soldier, a seaman, and a courtier.' The writer of a manuscript letter tells us, that the Dean declared he died not only religiously, but he found him to be a man as ready and as able to give as to take instruction.

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"On the morning of his death he smoked, as usual, his favourite tobacco, and when they brought him a cup of excellent sack, being asked how he liked it, Rawleigh answered, As the fellow, that, drinking of St. Giles's bowl, as he went to Tyburn, said, that was good drink if a man might tarry by it.' The day before, in the Gate-house, his eye had caught passing from Westminster-hall to Sir Hugh Beeston in the throng, and calling on him, requested that

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he would see him die to-morrow. Sir Hugh, to secure himself a seat on the scaffold, had provided himself with a letter to the sheriff, which was not read at the time, and Sir Walter found his friend thrust by, lamenting that he could not get there. Farewell!' exclaimed Rawleigh, I know not what shift you will make, but I am sure to have a place.' In going from the prison to the scaffold, among others who were pressing hard to see him, one old man, whose head was bald, came very forward, insomuch that Rawleigh noticed him, and asked, whether he would have aught of him?' The old man answered, Nothing but to see him, and to pray to God for him.' Rawleigh replied, I thank thee, good friend, and I am sorry I have no better thing to return thee for thy good will.' Observing his bald head, he continued, but take this night-cap, (which was a very rich wrought one that he

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wore) for thou hast more need of several corners of the scaffold, it now than I.'

"His dress, as was usual with him, was elegant, if not rich. Oldys describes it, but mentions, that he had a wrought night-cap under his hat,' which we have otherwise disposed of; his ruff band, a black wrought velvet night-gown over a hair-coloured satin doublet, and a black wrought waistcoat; black cut taffety breeches, and ash-coloured silk stockings.

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"He ascended the scaffold with the same cheerfulness he had passed to it; and observing the lords seated at a distance, some at windows, he requested they would approach him, as he wished what he had to say they should all witness. This request was complied with by several. His speech is well known; but some copies contain matters not in others. When he finished, he requested Lord Arundel that the king would not suffer any libels to defame him after death- And now I have long journey to go, and must take my leave.' He embraced all the lords and other friends with such courtly compliments, as if he had met them at some feast,' says a letter-writer. Having taken off his gown, he called to the heads-man to show him the axe, which not being instantly done, he repeated, 'I prithee let me see it. Dost thou think that I am afraid of it?' He passed the edge lightly over his finger, and smiling, observed to the sheriff, This is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases,' and kissing it, laid it down. Another writer has, 'This is that, that will cure all sorrows.' After this, he went to three

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and kneeling down, desired all the people to pray for him, and recited a long prayer to himself. When he began to fit himself for the block, he first laid himself down to try how the block fitted him; after rising up, the execu tioner kneeled down to ask his forgiveness, which Rawleigh with an embrace did, but intreated him not to strike till he gave a token by lifting up his hand, and then, fear not, but strike home! When he laid his head down to receive the stroke, the executioner desired him to lay his face towards the east. 'It was no great matter which way a man's head stood, so the heart lay right,' said Rawleigh; but these were not his last words. He was once more to speak in this world with the same intrepidity he had lived in it-for, having lain some minutes on the block in prayer, he gave the sig nal; but the executioner, either unmindful, or in fear, failed to strike, and Rawleigh, after once or twice putting forth his hands, was compelled to ask him, 'Why dost thou not strike? Strike, man!' In two blows he was beheaded; but from the first, his body never shrunk from the spot, by any discomposure of his posture, which, like his mind, was immoveable.

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"In all the time he was upon the scaffold, and before,' says one of the manuscript letter-writers, there appeared not the least alteration in him, either in his voice or countenance; but he seemed as free from all manner of apprehension as if he had been come thither rather to be a spectator than a sufferer ;-nay, the beholders seemed much more sensible than

did he, so that he hath purchased here in the opinion of men such honour and reputation, as it is thought his greatest enemies are they that are most sorrowful for his death, which they see is like to turn so much to his advantage.' "The people were deeply affected at the sight, and so much, that one said, that we had not such another head to cut off;' and another 'wished the head and brains to be upon Secretary Naunton's shoulders.' The observer suffered for this; he was a wealthy citizen, and great newsmonger, and one who haunted Paul's Walk. Complaint was made, and the citizen summoned to the privycouncil. He pleaded that he intended no disrespect to Mr. Secretary; but only spake in reference to the old proverb, that two heads were better than one!' His excuse was allowed at the moment; but when afterwards called on for a contribution to St. Paul's cathedral, and having subscribed a hundred pounds, the Secretary observed to him, that two are better than one, Mr. Wiemark!' either from fear or charity the witty citizen doubled his subscription.

"Thus died this glorious and gallant cavalier, of whom Osborne says, His death was managed by him with so high and religious a resolution, as if a Roman had acted a Christian, or rather a Christian a Roman.'

"After having read the preceding article, we are astonished at the greatness, and the variable nature of this extraordinary man, and this happy genius. With Gibbon, who once meditated to write his life, we may pause, and pronounce 'his character is

ambiguous;' but we shall not hesitate to decide, that Rawleigh knew better how to die than to live. His glorious hours,' says a contemporary, were his arraignment and execution;' but never will be forgotten the intermediate years of his lettered imprisonment!"

9.

Memoirs of the Baron de Kolli, relative to his Secret Mission, in 1810, for liberating Ferdinand VII. from Captivity at Valençay.

These partake of the interest of Baron Trenck's Memoirs, but involve still more important considerations.

The condition of Ferdinand VII. while a prisoner at Valençay, and the consequence of his presence in Spain to unite that nation in its resistance to the infamous invasion of Buonaparte, gave rise to the attempt of the British Government for his escape, in which the Baron de Kolliwas the immediate agent. Two or three selected passages from the beginning of this volume, will show that pity as well as policy must have been the source of that effort :

"The guard of the King and the Infantas was entrusted to a staff officer, whose real functions were disguised under the title of commandant of the royal establishment; this agent of the ministers, or rather of the general police, detained the originals of all letters addressed to, or written by, his catholic majesty, and only delivered or forwarded the copies. It is easy to conceive the consequences of such a system of tyranny. On the one hand, the king could receive no news from

Spain that was not of a nature to give him pain, and deprive him of all hope; and on the other, the falsification of his correspondence by the police enabled it to give currency, under the king's name, to every piece of imposture which it wished to be credited, as to his situation and secret wishes.

"Numerous brigades of gendarmerie were posted all round the environs of Valençay; every traveller was subjected to the most rigid examination, and the smallest irregularity in their passports occasioned the most unheard-of annoyances. I was told, that a merchant of Bourdeaux was obliged to turn back and take another road, because Fouché's myrmidons did not find that his nose was so aquiline as his passport described it.

Having received his instructions" in the middle of a volume of Marmontel, the leaves of which had been carefully pasted together," the Baron proceeded on his mission, the honour of which was even coveted by the Duke of Kent himself, one of its ardent promo

ters.

While in London, it gives us a strange idea of such matters to be told by the Baron.

"In order to avoid the observation of the French police, I never ventured near the Secretary of State's office, but with the greatest precaution. Our reguOur regular meetings took place at a house of the admiral's; Lord Wellesley went there only at night, without any attendants, and in a borrowed carriage. Sir George Cockburn and myself entered by a different way.

"Towards the end of January, every thing was arranged, and all the plans finally settled."

And on sailing, "Albert was also the bearer of a packet addressed to me, containing diamonds to the amount of 208,000 francs for my private emoluments, and the first expenses of my mission; for the more considerable disbursements which were likely to follow, an unlimited credit had been opened for King Ferdinand, at a Paris banker's.

"I was provided with seals and cyphers of the secretaryships of state of Buonaparte's government, French passports, feuilles de route, orders of the ministers of war and marine,* &c. &c. all things quite indispensable for the success of such an enterprise.

"On the 28th of February, the expedition sailed.”

Under the convoy of Sir George Cockburn, the Baron was carried to the Bay of Quiberon, a convenient site for landing on the coast of France. Here, unfortunately, they encountered a Mr. Ferriet, who, though in the pay of England, was acting the double part of an agent of Buonaparte. This fellow partially penetrated the design, and betrayed it; but the full developement was reserved for a M. Richard, in whom the Baron was led to confide at Paris, a Vendean, and apparently a stanch Bourbonist.

After landing, the early parts of the Baron's toils were sufficiently difficult and perilous.

"From the 10th to the 14th of March (he tells us) I travelled above a hundred and forty leagues

"All these different papers which the English ministry had procured from the best sources were blank and signed...."

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