SIR WALTER RALEIGH WRITING HIS "HISTORY OF THE WORLD." RALEIGH was first imprisoned in the Tower in 1592 (eight weeks) for winning the heart of Elizabeth Throgmorton, one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour, "not only a moral sin, but in those days a heinous political offence." Raleigh's next imprisonment was in 1603 after being first confined in his own house, he was conveyed to the Tower, next sent to Winchester gaol, returned from thence to the Tower, imprisoned for between two and three months in the Fleet, and again removed to the Tower, where he remained until his release, thirteen years afterwards, to undertake his new Expedition to Guiana. Mr. Payne Collier possesses a copy of that rare tract, A Good Speed to Virginia, 4to. 1609, with the autograph on the title-page, " W. Ralegh, Turr. Lond.," showing that at the time this tract was published Raleigh recorded himself as a prisoner in the Tower of London. During part of the time, Lady Raleigh resided with her husband; and here, in 1605, was born Carew, their second son. After she had been forbidden to lodge with her husband in the Tower, Lady Raleigh lived on Tower Hill. At his prison-lodging in the Beauchamp Tower, Sir Walter wrote his political discourses, and commenced his famous History of the World, which he published in 1614. Raleigh wrote his History avowedly for his patron, Prince Henry of Wales, the heirapparent to the throne; upon whose death Sir Walter is stated to have burnt the continuation of the work, which he had written. Another account in the Journal de Paris, 1787, relates that one day, while writing the second volume, Raleigh, being at the window of his apartment, and thinking gravely of the duty of the historian, and the respect due to truth, suddenly his attention was attracted by a great noise and tumult in the court under his eye. He saw a man strike another, whom, from his costume, he supposed to be an officer, and who, drawing his sword, passed it through the body of the person who struck him; but the wounded man did not fall till he had knocked down his adversary with a stick. The guard coming up at this moment, seized the officer, and led him away; while at the same time the body of the man who was killed by the sword-thrust was borne by some persons, who had great difficulty in penetrating the crowd which surrounded them. Next day Raleigh received a visit from an intimate friend, to whom he related the scene which he had witnessed the preceding day, when his friend said that there was scarcely a word of truth in any of the circumstances he had narrated; that the supposed officer was no officer at all, but a domestic of a foreign ambassador; that it was he who gave the first blow; that he did not draw his sword, but that the other had seized it and passed it through the body of the domestic before any one had time to prevent him; that at this moment a spectator among the crowd knocked down the murderer with a stick; and that some strangers bore away the body of the dead! "Allow me to tell you," replied Raleigh to his friend," that I may be mistaken about the station of the murderer; but all the other circumstances are of the greatest exactitude, because I saw every incident with my own eyes, and they all happened under my window in that very place opposite us, where you may see one of the flag-stones higher than the rest." "My dear Raleigh," replied his friend, "it was on that very stone that I was sitting when the whole occurred, and I received this little scratch that you see on my cheek in wrenching the sword out of the hands of the murderer; and, upon my honour, you have deceived yourself on all points." Sir Walter, when alone, took the manuscript of the second volume of his History, and, reflecting upon what had passed, said, "How many falsehoods must there be in this work! If I cannot assure myself of an event which happened under my own eyes, how can I venture to describe those which occurred thousands of years before I was born, or those even which have passed at a distance since my birth? Truth! truth! this is the sacrifice that I owe thee." Upon which he threw his manuscript, the work of years, into the fire, and watched it tranquilly consumed to the last leaf.* SIR WALTER RALEIGH ATTEMPTS SUICIDE IN JAMES I. had not long been seated on the throne before two or three plots against him were discovered. Among these was one named the Spanish or Lord Cobham's treason, to which he wickedly declared he had been instigated by Raleigh; and, although Cobham, shortly afterwards, fully and solemnly retracted all that he had said against Sir Walter, he was committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason, * Abridged from Curiosities of History, 1857. in July, 1602. While there he made an attempt at suicide by stabbing himself, aiming at the heart, but he only succeeded in inflicting a deep wound in the left breast. We have Cecil's written word for this: it was long disputed. The following letter which Raleigh wrote to his wife before he committed the act, is from a contemporary copy, transcribed from Serjeant Yelverton's Collection in All-Souls College, Oxford. "Sir Walter Raleigh to his Wife, after he had hurt himself in the Tower. "Receive from thy unfortunate husband these his last lines, these the last words that ever thou wilt receive from him. That I can live to think never to see thee and my child more, I cannot. I have desired God and disputed with my reason, but nature and compassion hath the victory. That I can live to think how you are both left a spoil to my enemies, and that my name shall be a dishonour to my child, I cannot, I cannot endure the memory thereof: unfortunate woman, unfortunate child, comfort yourselves, trust God, and be contented with your poor estate. I would have bettered it if I had enjoyed a few years. Thou art a young woman, and forbear not to marry again: it is now nothing to me; thou art no more mine, nor I thine. To witness that thou didst love me once, take care that thou marry not to please sense, but to avoid poverty, and to preserve thy child. That thou didst also love me living, witness it to others; to my poor daughter, to whom I have given nothing; for his sake, who will be cruel to himself to preserve thee. Be charitable to her, and teach thy son to love her for his father's sake. For myself, I am left of all men that have done good to many. All my good terms forgotten, all my errors revived and expounded to all extremity of ill; all my services, hazards, and expenses for my country, plantings, discoveries, flights, councils, and whatsoever else, malice hath now covered over. I am now made an enemy and traitor by the word of an unworthy man; he hath proclaimed me to be a partaker of his vain imaginations, notwithstanding the whole course of my life hath approved the contrary, as my death shall approve it. Woe, woe, woe be unto him by whose falsehood we are lost! he hath separated us asunder; he hath slain my honour, my fortune; he hath robbed thee of thy husband, thy child of his father, and me of you both. Oh, God! thou dost know my wrongs; know then, thou my wife and child: know then thou, my Lord and King, that I ever thought them too honest to betray, and too good to conspire against. But my wife, forgive thou all as I do; live humble, for thou hast but a time also. God forgive my Lord Harry (Cobham), for he was my heavy enemy. And for my Lord Cecil, I thought he never would forsake me in extremity; I would not have done it him, God knows. But do not thou know it, for he must be master of thy child, and may have compassion of him. Be not dismayed that I died in despair of God's mercies; strive not to dispute it, but assure thyself that God hath not left me, and Satan tempted me. Hope and despair live not together. I know it is forbidden to destroy ourselves, but I trust it is forbidden in this sort, that we destroy not ourselves despairing of God's mercy. "The mercy of God is immeasurable, the cogitations of men comprehend it not. In the Lord I have ever |