such energy in the "History of the World," in which great work are to be found several allusions to this passage in his life, which contain observations upon the military conduct and character of some of the generals employed in the war, too remarkable to be omitted. Treating of the danger of joining two or more generals in commission, he observes:-" It hath in all ages been used as the safest course, to send forth, in great expeditions, two generals of one army. This was the common practice of those two mighty cities, Athens and Rome, which other states and princes have often imitated, persuading themselves that great armies are not so well conducted by one as by two, who, out of emulation to excel each other, will use the greater diligence. They have also joined two chief commanders in equal commission, upon this further consideration, the better to restrain the ambition of any one that should be trusted with so great a strength. For hereof all commonweals have been jealous, having been taught by their examples that have made themselves tyrants over those cities and states that have employed them. In this point the Venetians have been so circumspect, as they have, for the most part, trusted strangers, and not their own, in all the wars which they have made. It is true that the equal authority of two commanding in chief serveth well to bridle the ambition of one or both from turning upon the prince or state that hath given them trust; but in managing the war itself, it is commonly the cause of ill success. In wars made near unto Rome itself, when two good friends were consuls, or such two at least as concurred in one desire of triumph, which honour (the greatest of any that Rome could give) was to be obtained by that one year's service, it is no marvel, though each of the consuls did his best, and referred all his thoughts unto none other end than victory. Yet in all dangerous cases, when the consuls proceeded otherwise than was desired, one dictator was appointed, whose power was neither hindered by any partner, nor by any great limitation. Neither was it indeed the manner, to send forth both the consuls to one war; but each went whither his lot called him, to his own province; unless one business seemed to require them both, and they also seemed fit to be joined in the administration. Now, although it was so, that the Romans did many times prevail with their joint generals, yet was this never or seldom without as much concord as any other virtue of the

commanders. For their modesty hath often been such, that the less able captain, though of equal authority, hath willingly submitted himself to the other, and obeyed his directions. This notwithstanding, they have many times, by ordaining two commanders of one army, received great and most dangerous overthrows; whereof in the second Punic war we shall find examples. On the contrary side, in their wars most remote, that were always managed by one, they seldom failed to win exceeding honour. Now of those ten generals, which served the Athenians at the battle of Marathon, it may truly be said, that had not their temper been better than the judgment of the people that sent them forth, and had not they submitted themselves to the conduction of Miltiades, their affairs had found the same success which they found at other times, when they coupled Nicias and Alcibiades together in Sicily: the one being so over-wary, and the other so hasty, as all came to nought that they undertook, whereas Cimon alone, as also Aristides, and others, having sole charge of all, did their country and commonweal most remarkable service. For it is hard to find two great captains of equal discretion and valour; but that the one hath more of fury than of judgment, and so the contrary, by which the best occasions are as often over-slipt, as at other times many actions are unseasonably undertaken. I remember it well, that when the Prince of Condé was slain after the battle of Jarnac (which Prince, together with the Admiral Chastillon, had the conduct of the Protestant army), the Protestants did greatly bewail the loss of the said prince, in respect of his religion, person, and birth; yet comforting themselves, they thought it rather an advancement than an hindrance to their affairs. For so much did the valour of the one outreach the advisedness of the other, as whatsoever the admiral intended to win by attending the advantage, the prince adventured to lose, by being over-confident in his own courage."

Again, in the following extract, which shows that he served with his troop in Languedoc, and was engaged in the battle of Moncontour, he remarks, commenting upon a retreat before the Romans, decided upon at a council of the Gauls:"This, indeed, had been a good resolution, if they had taken it before the enemy had been in sight. But, as well in the wars of these later ages as in former times, it hath ever been found

extremely dangerous to make a retreat in the head of an enemy's army. For, although they that retire do often turn head, yet in always going on from the pursuing enemy, they find, within a few miles, either street, hedge, ditch, or place of disadvantage, which they are enforced to pass in disorder. In such cases, the soldier knows it, as well as the captain, that he which forsakes the field perceives and fears some advantage of the enemies. Fear, which is the betrayer of those succours that reason offereth, when it hath once possessed the heart of man, it casteth thence both courage and understanding. They that make the retreat are always in fear to be abandoned; they that lead the way, fear to be engaged; and so the hindmost treads on his heels that is foremost, and, consequently, all disband, run, and perish, if those that favour the retreat be not held to it by men of great courage. The miserable overthrow that the French received in Naples, in the year 1503, upon a retreat made by the Marquis of Sal, doth testify no less. For although a great troop of French horse sustained the pursuing enemy a long time, and gave the foot leisure to trot away, yet, being retarded by often turnings, the Spanish foot overtook and defeated them utterly. During the wars between the Imperials and the French, Boisi and Mont were lost at Brignolles, who in a bravery would needs see the enemy before they left the field. So was Strossi overthrown by the Marquis of Marignan, because he could not be persuaded to dislodge the night before the marquis's arrival. Therefore did the French king, Francis the First, wisely when, without respect of point of honour, he dislodged from before Landersey by night; as many other, the most advised captains (not finding themselves in case to give battle,) have done. Je ne trouve point (saith the Marshal Monluc) au fait des armes chose si difficile qu'une retraite, I find nothing in the art of war so difficult as to make a safe retreat.' A sure rule it is, that there is less dishonour to dislodge in the dark than to be beaten in the light. And hereof M. de la Noüe gives this judgment of a day's retreat made in France, presently before the battle at Moncontour. For (saith he) staying upon our reputation, in show, not to dislodge by night, we lost our reputation, indeed, by dislodging by day; whereby we were forced to fight upon our disadvantage, and to our ruin. And yet did that worthy gentleman Count Lodowick, of Nassau, brother to the late famous Prince of Orange, make the

retreat at Moncontour with so great resolution, as he saved onehalf of the Protestant army, then broken and disbanded, of which myself was an eye witness, and was one of them that had cause to thank him for it."

By what good fortune Ralegh escaped that horribly comprehensive and preconcerted destruction, commonly called the massacre of St. Bartholomew, which was perpetrated in 1572, we have now no means of ascertaining. It has, however, been conjectured that he took refuge with young Sidney (afterwards Sir Philip) in the

house of Sir Francis Walsingham, who was then English Ambassador at Paris.

In 1575 Ralegh returned to England, and resided for some time in the Middle Temple; but, probably, as the guest of a friend, the temporary occupant of his chambers, or renting chambers of his own, for his name does not appear on the books of that society. It is true his commendatory verses to George Gascoigne's "Steele Glass" are stated to be by "Walter Rawley, of the Middle

Temple," but a man might then, as now, occupy chambers in the Temple, without being of it, as lawyers understand the word.*

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Here, however, he made no protracted stay; for we soon after 1576 find him serving under the Prince of Orange against the Spaniards, in the Netherlands; and it is more than probable that he had a share in the battle of Rimenant, on the 1st August, 1578, in which Don John of Austria, natural son of the Emperor Charles V., "whose haughty conceit of himself," says Ralegh, overcame the greatest difficulties, though his judgment was over weak to manage the least," met with so rough a reception, especially from the English forces under the command of the famous Sir John Norris, that he was compelled to make a disgraceful and disastrous retreat his report of which (if he sent one to his half-brother Philip II. of Spain, for whom he was Governor of the Low Countries,) must have caused that cruel and bigoted tyrant to bemoan himself, and have made the grim and superseded Duke of Alva smile. Don John did not survive this disgrace more than two months.

Soon after his return to his own country, his mind, which never could remain inactive, became absorbed in adventures of a very different description, which, perhaps, had been long ago propounded to him by his half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. This brave, learned, and adventurous gentleman, allied hardly less by merit than by consanguinity to Ralegh, and associated with him in more than one undertaking, deserves a notice more enlarged than we can afford to bestow upon him. He was, as we have said, the second son of Sir Walter's mother by her first husband, and was born in the year 1539. Although a younger brother, he derived a considerable estate from his father, and received his education at Eton and Oxford. Introduced by his aunt, Mrs. Ashley, one of her gentlewomen, to the Queen, he speedily rose in her favour; but the trammels and, perhaps, the society of the court were not to his taste, although he afterwards married a maid of honour. He

* Some historians of those times note, says Oldys, "that those who dwelt among the lawyers, and did not follow their profession, grew so numerous and inconvenient, that there was an order or proclamation for their removal out of the inns of court about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth, or the beginning of her successor's reign."