Majesty knew him to be a person of more honesty than cunning.' The temper of Wilson being as above described, the following extract from a note of Sir Robert Naunton, acknowledging the receipt of Wilson's first reports, sufficiently evinces the malignity of the King and his government : 'Sir, I read most of both your letters to his Majesty, who allows well of your care and discretion. I hope you will every day get ground of that hypocrite that is so desirous to die,* mortified man that he is! His Majesty was well pleased with your past services; he will think long for the ripening and mellowing of the observations and conferences by which you are to work upon that cripple. The best comfort I can give you is, I hope you shall not long be troubled with him; proin tu, quod fac turus es, fac citó, et frontem occasionis arripe, et preme quantum potes; potes enim, et sanè vis. Vale!' + "Your assured loving Friend, ROB. NAUNTON. The mission of Sir Thomas Wilson, though he executed his charge with sufficient zeal, perseverance, and cunning, was not productive of the results which James desired and expected. Raleigh invariably adhered to the statement which he had made before the Commissioners, and which he afterwards re *This expression refers to the following passage in Wilson's account of his first interview with Raleigh; after stating that he 'found this man lying upon a bed,' he says, 'Mr Lieutenant telling him that I was appointed to take the charge of him, he answered that "I was weleome," and said, "let the King do even what he will with me, for never man was more desirous to die.", + Therefore do quickly what you have to do; seize opportunity by the forehead, and press as much as you can; I know you both can and will. farewell! 6 peated at the place of execution. He denied all connexion with France, and constantly declared, that the absurd imputation of his having a French commission on his Guiana voyage, was utterly false; 'the French King's commissions,' said he, are all on record; if ever I had one, it may be ascertained beyond a doubt for a French crown.' He admitted that the French agent had met him at Brentford, on his journey to London, but that he only conversed with him about the means of escaping, in which he had no political object whatever. The story of Sir Walter Raleigh is one of those which seem to belong to the romance of history; and circumstances and anecdotes respecting him, which are trivial and unimportant in themselves, become attractive and valuable from the universal interest excited by the character of the extraordinary man to whom they relate. With this view we extract a few passages from the minutes of Sir Thomas Wilson. 12th September, at night. 'This evening finding him reading the Psalms, I told him that there he had the best comfort; that there he had a man and a king, and the best man and the best king that ever was, who had as great affliction as ever any had, and yet by his constancy and faithfulness he overcame all; and so might he. Hereupon he began and told me from the beginning to the end all his misfortunes; how first at his Majesty's coming in, Northampton, Suffolk, Salisbury, and the rest, plotted to get him and Cobham out of favour, and to get every thing into their own hands; then he went to the arraignment at Winchester, and said, "it was as unjust a condemnation, without proof and testimony, as ever was known." So went he along his thirteen years' imprisonment, and the means he took to procure liberty for his voyage; his disasters there, and all the tedious circumstances, and then the betraying of him by Sir Lewis Stukely on his return. After this I told him that if he would but disclose what he knew, the King would forgive him and do him all favour; aye," quoth he, "how should I be assured of that? The King will say when it is told, the craven was afraid of his life, else he would not have told it. Therefore no, God-a-mercy!" I told him that if he would write to the King, * I would ride and carry it, and assured him upon my life that I would return him a gracious answer. Whereupon he made a pause, as if he were half persuaded to do it. Then supper came up, and after he had supped, he got courage again to say he knew nothing worth the revealing. 13th September.- This day upon his complaint of his misery, I gave him counsel and comfort to bear his affliction with patience, upon the assurance of God's mercy, and the example of such as God had suffered to be as grievously afflicted as flesh and blood could bear, and yet had restored them to as great felicity as ever. He took occasion thereupon to commend the magnanimity of the Romans, who would rather have their deaths by their own hands than endure any that was base or reproachful. To which I answered, that "they were such as knew not God, nor the danger of their souls to be damned to perpetual torment of hell for de * Raleigh afterwards wrote a letter to the King, which is published in Cayley's Life, vol. ii, p. 153; the date of this letter has hitherto been considered to be uncertain, but as it appears unquestionably from Sir Thomas Wilson's Papers that a letter was sent to the King from Raleigh on the 18th of September, and as an ancient copy of the letter, preserved with Wilson's papers, at the State-Paper Office, is indorsed with that date, we may probably conclude that this was the letter then sent. The letter is too long for insertion here; it merely consists of a vindication of his Guiana Voyage, and contains no disclosures whatever of facts which were not known and notorious before. stroying their bodies, which God had made a temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in.” To which he said, "it was a disputable question; for divers did hold opinion that a man may do it, and yet not desperately despair of God's mercy, but die in God's favour." Whereto this discourse of his tended it is easily seen, but I think he hath no such Roman courage. Mr Lieutenant tells me he hath had like discourse with him heretofore, who charged him with such intent upon occasion of having so many apothecary's drugs, and such like; "which it were well," saith he, were not suffered to be here." "Why," saith Raleigh," if you take away all these means from me, yet, if I had such a mind, I could run my head against a post and kill myself."' 21st September. This day I was sitting by him while the barber was trimming and keeming (combing) my head. He told me he was wont to keem his head a whole hour every day before he came into the Tower. Asking him why he did not so still, he said, "he would know first who should have it; he would not bestow so much cost on it for the hang man. as On Sir Thomas Wilson's announcing to him that he was about to leave him, being recalled from his charge, Raleigh told him that he knew that soon as he was gone he should be delivered over to the secular arm, as they called it,' and desired Wilson to tell the King that he could do him better service here than in the grave; and yet,' said he, 'what have I to do with life? My age is fit for the grave; my reputation is lost; my body weak and full of pain; nothing can be more welcome to me than death,' * In one of his Reports, Wilson says, the things he seems to make most reckoning of are his chemical stuffs, amongst which there is so many spirits of things, that I think there is none wanting that ever I heard of, unless it be the Spirit of God.' Sir Thomas Wilson,* as above-stated, left the Tower on the 15th of October; probably upon the arrival of the expected letter from the King of Spain, determining the fate of Raleigh. From a translation of this document preserved at the State-Paper Office, it appears to have been dated from San Lorenzo, the 5th day of October, according to the Gregorian style, which would correspond with the 25th of September in the computation of time then used in England. It would, therefore, probably arrive in England about the middle of October. The despatch is signed by the King of Spain himself, and is addressed to Julian Sanchez de Ulloa, the Spanish Agent in England. It informs him that his master had received the King of England's communication *The following interesting and pathetic letter from Lady Raleigh, to her relation Lady Carew, written soon after her husband's death, is taken from a copy in the State-Paper Office. Sir Thomas Wilson seems to have consummated his treachery to Raleigh by the spoliation of his widow and child. -- 'MADAM, I remember when your Ladyship was last with me, you told me that you knew Sir Thomas Wilson well, adding good commendations of him. I beseech your Ladyship that you will do me the favour to entreat Sir Thomas Wilson to surcease the pursuit of my husband's books and library; they being all the land and living which he left to his poor child, hoping that he would inherit him in these only, and that he would apply himself to learning to be fit for them; which request I hope I shall fulfil as far as in me lieth. Sir Thomas Wilson hath already fetched away all his mathematical instruments, one of which cost 1007 when it was made. I was promised them all again, but I have not received one back. If there were any of these books not to be had elsewhere, God forbid that Sir Thomas Wilson should not have them for his Majesty's use; but they tell me that Byll, the bookseller, hath the very same. Thus entreating your Ladyship's favour that you will be a means unto Sir Thomas Wilson that I may be troubled no more in this matter concerning the books having had so many unspeakable troubles and losses, that none of worth will seem to molest me, but rather give me comfort and help. Thus I rest, ever to be commanded, and to love you truly, |