a window where the Lords of Arundel, Northampton, and Doncaster, with some other Lords and Knights sate, and spake as followeth :-" I thank God, of his infinite goodness, that he hath brought me hither to die in the light, and not in darkness ;” (but by reason that the place where the Lords and others sat was some distance from the scaffold, that he perceived they could not well hear him, he said,) "I will strain my voice, for I would willingly have your honours hear me."

But my Lord of Arundel said, "Nay, we will rather come down to the scaffold," which he and some others did. Sir W. Raleigh then saluted them severally; and afterwards began again to speak as follows, viz.:

"As I said before, I thank God heartily that he hath brought me into the light to die before the eyes of so many honourable and worthy personages; and that he hath not suffered me to die in obscurity in the dark prison of the Tower, where, for the space of fourteen years together, I have been oppressed with many miseries, and have suffered much affliction and sickness. There are two main points of suspicion that his Majesty, as I hear, hath conceived against me, and of these I desire to clear myself before I die, because I conceive they have specially hastened my coming hither. One is, that his Majesty hath been informed that I had some plot or intelligence with France, moved upon these reasons: first, that when I came back from Guiana, on my arrival at Plymouth, I endeavoured to have passed over in a small bark to Rochel; a second reason was, that upon my last intended escape from London, I did intend to have fled into France, and his Majesty therefore thinks I was drawn thither by the French. These, and the coming of the French Agent to my house here in London, gave his Majesty just and weighty reason so to believe it; besides, it was re

ported that I had a commission from the French King at my going forth. Now, my Lords, for a man, at any time, to call God to witness a falsehood is a sin, a greater than which cannot well be imagined; but for a man to do so at the hour of death, when he hath no time to repent, is still more grievous and impious; and therefore for me to call that Majesty to witness an untruth, before whose tribunal within this quarter of an hour I must appear and answer, were, I know, a sin beyond all measure damnable, and without hope of pardon. Yet I do now call that great God to witness, before whom I am presently to render an account of what I say, that, as I hope to see God, or to live in the world to come, or to have any benefit or comfort by the passion of my Saviour, I did never entertain any conspiracy, nor never had any plot or intelligence, with the French King; I never had any commission from him, and never saw his hand or seal in all my life; nor had I any advice or practice with the French Agent; neither knew I that there was a French Agent, nor what nor who he was, till I met him, unlooked for, in the gallery at my lodging: if in this I speak not true, O Lord! let me never enter into thy kingdom! The second suspicion was, that I had spoken dishonourably and disloyally of my Sovereign. My accuser, in this respect, was a base runagate Frenchman, a fellow that I specially knew to be perfidious; for being by him drawn into the action of freeing myself at Salisbury, in which I confess that my hand was touched, he being sworn to secrecy over-night, went and betrayed me the next morning. I know that to tell a lie now would be in vain even to gain the favour of the King; but what have I now to do with kings? I am not now subject unto kings, neither do I fear them; I am now a subject of Death, and have only to do with my God, in whose presence I stand; and as I hope to be saved at the last judg

ment day, I never spoke dishonourably, disloyally, or dishonestly of his Majesty in all my life; and I cannot but think it strange that that Frenchman, being so base and mean a fellow, should be so far credited as he hath been. I confess I did attempt to escape; I cannot excuse it, but it was only done to save my life. And I do likewise confess that I did dissemble and feign myself to be sick at Salisbury; but I hope it was no sin, for I have read in Scripture that David the anointed of God did feign himself mad, to save his life, and it was not imputed unto him for sin; so by what I did, I intended no ill, but only to gain and prolong time till his Majesty came, from whom I hoped for some commiseration*. I forgive this Frenchman, and Sir Lewis Stukely, who was also a witness against me as to my flight, with all my heart; I do leave it to God to revenge my wrong, but do pray to God to forgive them the wrong which they have done me. I have received the sacrament this morning, and I have forgiven all men. But that these two men are perfidious, I am bound in charity to speak, that all men may take heed of them. Sir Lewis Stukely, my keeper and kinsman, hath affirmed that I showed him a letter, whereby I did signify unto him that I would give him 10,000l. for my escape; but may God cast my soul into everlasting fire if I made any such proffer of 10,000l., or even of 1000l.; neither had I the money to give him; if I had had so much, I could have

It is not probable that Raleigh ever said that he expected commiseration from the King, as it would be inconsistent with his uniform expressions respecting him. In speaking to Sir Thomas Wilson of his attempt to escape, he says that his object was to remain in France, where he knew he should be protected from the King of Spain, until in time "the Queen should make means for his pardon and recalling." It may be conjectured that his allusion on the scaffold was to the Queen, when he spoke of commiseration, and not to James, of whom he always speaks in a different tone. VOL. I. 2 x

made my peace better with it in another way*, than by giving it to Stukely. Now may God forgive him, as I do; I will not say God is not a God of vengeance, but I desire God to forgive him, as I do desire to be forgiven of God. There was a report, likewise, that I meant not to go to Guiana at all, and that I knew not of any mine, nor intended any such thing or matter, but only to get my liberty, which I had not the wit to keep. But I protest it was my full intent to search for gold-for gold for the benefit of his Majesty and myself, and of those that ventured with me, with the rest of my countrymen; but he that knew the head of the mine would not take means to discover it, when he saw my son was slain; and afterwards made away with himself.”

Then turning to the Earl of Arundel, he said, "My Lord, being in the gallery of my ship, at my departure, I remember your Lordship took me by the hand, and said you would request one thing of me, which was, That I would not turn pirate when I got abroad, and that whether I made a good voyage or a bad, I should not fail to return again into England,' which I then promised you, and gave you my faith I would, and so I have." To which the Earl of Arundel answered and said, "It is true; I do very well remember it; they were the very last words I spake unto you.”

Sir W. Raleigh then proceeded thus: "Another slander was raised of me, that I would have gone away from my company, and left them at Guiana. But there were a great many worthy men that accompanied me always, as my serjeant-major, George Raleigh, and divers others, who knew my intent was not so. Another opinion was held of me, that I carried with me to sea 16,000 pieces, and that all

*He probably alludes here to the purchase of a pardon. It is remarkable that Raleigh never refers to the King of Spain as the cause of his death during the whole of this address,

the voyage I intended was only to get money into my hands. As I shall answer it before God, I had not at the time I went, in all the world, in my own hands, or in the hands of others to my use, either directly or indirectly, above a 100l.; and of this I gave my wife 251. when I departed. This accusation came, as I afterwards perceived, by looking over the Scrivener's books, where the bills of adventure were found, amounting to a great sum, and so that false report was raised.

I will now only borrow a little time of Mr. Sheriff to speak of one thing not appertaining to this matter, but which doth make my heart to bleed to hear that such an imputation should be laid upon me; for it is said that I was a prosecutor of the death of the Earl of Essex, and that I stood in a window over against him when he suffered in the Tower, and puffed out tobacco in disdain of him. I take God to witness that I had no hand in his blood, and was none of those that procured his death*. I shed tears for him

* A letter from Raleigh to Cecil, published in Murdin's State Papers, p. 811, has been generally supposed to fix upon Raleigh's character the disgrace of having urged the execution of the Earl of Essex. The letter is without a date, except that it is indorsed "Sir Walter Raleigh, 1601." This indorsement was probably made sometime after the letter was written, and must necessarily be a mistake; for as Essex was executed on the 25th of February, 1600-1, no English writer at that time could have given the date of 1601 to a letter obviously written in the lifetime of Essex. There is nothing, therefore, to fix the date of the letter with certainty; nor is there anything in its contents inconsistent with the supposition that it was written before the trial of Essex, and during his imprisonment and exclusion from Court on his return from Ireland. Some of the expressions in the letter may refer to the Earl's execution;-but not necessarily so; and others expressly refer to the restraint of his liberty, and the continuance of his disgrace. Upon the whole, we think it very doubtful whether the letter is not to be referred to an earlier period than that which is usually ascribed to it; and therefore that it furnishes no proof that Raleigh urged the execution of the Earl of Essex,