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him in some measure for the expense of these patriotic undertakings, the Queen bestowed upon him additional grants of land, and farther emoluments on his Wine-licences.

In the latter end of 1586, her Majesty made him Seneschal of the Duchies of Cornwall and Exeter, and Lord Warden of the Stannaries in Devonshire and Cornwall. She also conferred upon him, in the ensuing year, a grant of the lands of Antony Babington, the hero of the conspiracy in favour of Mary Queen of Scots which goes by his name. But these preferments exposed him to considerable envy. Even the Earl of Leicester, who had previously been his friend, grew jealous of him, and set up in opposition to him the young Earl of Essex. Neither the factions of the court however, nor the aspersions of the people, whom Ralegh disdained to flatter,* could deter him from attending to the duties of his several employments.

In 1587, he collected a new levy of a hundred and fifty men for Virginia; appointing Mr. John

That he could never condescend to court the people by the usual arts, is noticed by Lord Burghley, in a breath with Essex's affectation of popularity, among his precepts to his son: "Seek not to be Essex; shun to be Ralegh." And he never was a favourite with them, till after his trial. The injustice and cruelty of his sentence, however, soon made his cause universally popular: and, a martyr to the weakness and timidity of his Sovereign, he has filled an ample space in the eye of posterity. (Cayley's Life, II. 209.) To the same writer we owe a conclusive vindication of Ralegh against the seventeen arguments of Hume, adduced in Note' I. (Hist. Eng. VI. 555.) which he there calls, clearing up' Sir Walter's story, but which (Mr. C. justly adds) either from indolence or design, contain a series of most gross misrepresentations.

White governor with twelve assistants, and incorporating them by the name of The Governor

and Assistants of the city of Ralegh in Virginia.' On their arrival at Hatteras, White despatched a strong party to Roanoke,* expecting to find there some of the party, which had been left upon it by Sir Richard Grenville; but they sought them in vain. They afterward discovered, that several of them had been murthered by the savages, and the rest driven to a remote part of the country. The apprehensions of a Spanish invasion, in 1588, prevented the sailing of supplies, to the great distress of the colony and the vexation of it's proprietor.†

About this time, Sir Walter was advanced to the post of Captain of her Majesty's Guard, and was one of the Council of War appointed to concert the most effectual methods for the security of the nation; upon which occasion he drew up a plan, affording ample proof of his judgement and his abilities. But he did not confine himself to the mere office of giving advice. He raised and disciplined the militia of Cornwall; and, having done every thing in his power at land, joined the fleet with a squadron of volunteers, and had a considerable share in the defeat of the Armada. His exertions upon this signal occasion justly raised him still higher in the favour of Elizabeth, who now made him Gentleman of her Privy Chamber.

* An island up the river Occam.

+ Shrinking at last, from the almost insurmountable difficulties incident to a single proprietor, and the expenses still to be incurred in addition to what he had already disbursed (40,000l.) he détermined, in 1589, to transfer his right to a company of gentlemen and merchants of London, reserving only to himself the fifth part of all gold and silver ore.

In 1589 Don Antonio, King of Portugal, being expelled from his dominions by Philip II. of Spain, the English Queen contributed six men of war and sixty thousand pounds to his assistance, and encouraged her subjects to concur in the same design. Accordingly Ralegh, with Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Norris, and 20,000 volunteers, accompanied that Prince to Portugal; and, during the whole expedition, his conduct was so entirely satisfactory to her Majesty, that she honoured him with a gold chain.

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On his way homeward he appears to have touched upon the Irish coast, probably with a view of making a short visit to his seignory there; for about this time he must have formed his acquaintance with Spenser, who had gone over to that island as Secretary to the Lord Deputy Grey, and having received from the Earl of Desmond's extensive forfeitures a grant of at least 3,000 acres in the county of Cork, had settled at Kilcolman near the river Mulla. Of this illustrious poet, none of the great men in Elizabeth's court, after the death of Sidney, was so kind a patron as Sir Walter Ralegh. He now paid the bard a visit, the particulars of which Spenser has agreeably celebrated, in his Colin Clout's come home again :'*

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"I make you pre

* In his dedication of this poem, he says: sent of this simple pastoral, unworthy of your higher conceit for the meanness of the stile, but agreeable with the truth in circumstance and matter; the which I humbly beseech you to accept in part of payment of the infinite debt, in which I acknowledge myself bounden to you for your singular favours, and sundry good turns, showed me at my last being in England; and with your good countenance protect against the malice of evil mouths, which are always wide open to carp at, and misconstrue, my simple meaning."

'One day, quoth he, I sat, as was my trade
Under the lost of Mole, that mountain hoar,
Keeping my sheep amongst the cooly shade

Of the green alders by the Mulla's shore.
There a strange shepherd chanced to find me out.
Whether allured by my pipe's delight,
Whose pleasing sound yet thrilled far about,

Or thither led by chance, I know not right:
Whom when I asked, from what place he came,
And how he hight; himself he did yclep
The Shepherd of the Ocean' by name,
And said he came far from the main-sea deep.
He, sitting me beside in that same shade,

Provoked me to play some pleasant fit;
And, when he heard the music which I made,
He found himself full greatly pleased at it.
Yet æmuling my pipe he took in hand

My pipe, before that, emuled of many

And play'd thereon (for well that skill he conn'd) *
Himself as skilful in that art as any.

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* As an additional proof of Spenser's opinion of this accomplished man, may be quoted his sonnet prefixed to the Fairy Queen :'

To the right noble and valorous knight, Sir Walter Ralegh, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and Lieutenant of Cornwall.

To thee, that art the summer's nightingale,

Thy sovereign goddess' sincere delight,

Why do I send this rustic madrigal,

That may thy tuneful ear unseason quite?

Thou only fit this argument to write,

In whose high thoughts Pleasure hath built her bower,

And dainty Love learn'd sweetly to indite.

My rhymes I know unsavoury and sour.

To taste the streams that, like a golden shower,
Flow from thy fruitful head of thy love's praise;

Fitter perhaps to thunder martial store,

Whenso they list thy lofty Muse to raise:
Yet, till that thou thy poem wilt make known,
Let thy fair Cynthia's praises be thus rudely shown.'

He piped, I sung; and when he sung, I piped,
By change of turns each making other merry;
Neither envying other, nor envied:

So piped we, until we both were weary.'

From a subsequent passage :

'His song was all a lamentable lay

Of great unkindness, and of usage hard
Of Cynthia, the Lady of the Sea,

Which from her presence faultless him debarr'd:

and from what follows, we may conclude that Ralegh, if he had lost, soon recovered Elizabeth's favour; and taking Spenser back with him introduced him at

court:

The Shepherd of the Ocean,' quoth he,
Unto that goddess' grace me first enhanced,
And to my oaten pipe inclined her ear;

That she thenceforth therein 'gan take delight,
And it desired at timely hours to hear,

Allwere my notes but rude and roughly dight.'

He had now concerted the project of intercepting the Spanish Plate-fleet, and for this purpose, in conjunction with other adventurers, fitted out a maritime force consisting of thirteen ships; to which Elizabeth added two men of war, giving him a commission as General of the fleet, and conferring the lieutenant-generalship on Sir John Burgh.

The winds proving adverse, he could not leave the coast of England till the sixth of May, and the day following, Sir Martin Frobisher overtook him with the Queen's letters of recall. Imagining his honour, however, engaged in the undertaking, he pursued his course; though the King of Spain, he was informed, had ordered that no ships should sail that

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