intellect do. Consequently he trusted his own opinion, and he had good cause to trust it.

Ralegh had first become prominent by his actions in Ireland, and very soon after he had attained to eminence he was employed by the Crown in their endeavour to bring some kind of prosperity to the country ravaged to desolation by war. Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. Six hundred thousand acres of land had been confiscated from the Earl of Desmond, and probably at his own suggestion Ralegh undertook to plant an English colony there. Others joined in the enterprise. Ralegh's share consisted of some twelve thousand acres in the counties of Cork, Waterford, and Tipperary, and he rented, in addition, Lismore Castle at the annual charge of £13 6s. 8d., from Meyler Magrath, Bishop of the See of Lismore and Archbishop of Cashel. His tenants he had taken from men of Devon (the stamp of man he knew and approved), and his land was soon recognized as the most prosperous among all the estates which these "gentlemen undertakers," as they were called, were opening out. Fertility did not satisfy him. His acres were well forested, and an idea occurred to him by which he could turn the timber to good account. His scheme was to construct pipe-staves and hogsheads and barrel boards, and to transport them to the wine growers of Spain and France. It was a good scheme and practical. But he found the utmost difficulty in obtaining a licence from the Privy Council for their export. He was not in favour with Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord-Deputy of Ireland, nor the deputy's cousin, one Richard Wingfield. By the time that sanction was obtained, Ireland was again in too unsettled a state for prosperity in quiet commerce, and Ralegh sold his estate to Richard Boyle,

who afterwards became Earl of Cork. He had planted many products, which his men had brought from Virginia, on the land of his Irish estate, and among these was the potato. He also tried to cultivate tobacco, but with less success.

Had Ralegh been supported during the last ten years of the Queen's reign, he would have benefited Ireland considerably by his activity, even though he was, at the same time, engaged in many other affairs, naval, political, and commercial. But he was badly hampered in his projects by loss of favour. His enemies were many, and they found pleasure in vexing him in small matters. This enmity, while Elizabeth lived, did not seriously injure his power or his reputation, but it set obstacles in the way of his projects which were just sufficient to thwart them.

Such were Ralegh's chief business activities, which were the groundwork of his life, these and the duties of Captain of the Guard, which were chiefly decorative. It is not easy to realize, in a time of great splendour, the day to day existence of the men who made that time splendid. The mind is apt to leap from dramatic moment to dramatic moment, when mighty exploits mark out a time's history like stepping-stones. When events are sufficiently great to stand prominently forth, not only in the history of the reign, but in the history of all time, the prosaic intervals of dull hard work are apt to be forgotten; but they are the essential training, without which those events would not have happened.

The life of the man is the life of the nation in little. Just as Ralegh thought nothing beneath his notice, thought nothing to which he put his hand too insignificant not to be done with his might, so England, under her great Queen, was working and working to

collect her strength, so that, when the moment at last came to strike, she might strike with effect.

Sir Walter Ralegh, Captain of the Guard, superb in pearls and silver, whom magnificence became, did not disdain on occasion to ride for many miles through the muddy roads of Devonshire to inspect the river at Roxburgh Down, and found time to write at length to Secretary Sir Robert Cecil, his opinion that the clashmills of Mr. Crymes, the tinner, did not harm the townsmen of Plymouth. That incident is as significant of the time's energy as the defeat of the Spanish Armament.

CHAPTER VIII

AGAINST SPAIN

Spain's enmity-The Armada-Ralegh's opinion of tacticsWith Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norreys-The privateers.

the motto of the nation. Their capacity for hard work was unequalled. The Armada was England's day of triumph. Men applaud a prima-donna on the night of her success, and are apt to forget the long years of training and privation and self-control that have preceded the glory of the moment. It is even so with a nation. The little hour of triumph is as nothing compared with the long years of life which made that triumph possible; and only the greatest artist and the greatest nation can bear the added burthen of success. England lapsed after the impulse of that great action had died away. The nation as a whole was too young and too boisterous with youth to support a victory so overpowering in its magnificence.

The triumph itself was like few in the history of nations, and events conspired to lend a vivid dramatic colour to its greatness.

The time had come when Philip the Second at last decided that the insolence of England must be punished. The exploits of men like Hawkins and Drake and Ralegh and Frobisher were becoming intolerable, and

though Elizabeth had at first given no sanction to their enterprises, treating them much as she had treated the English supporters of the Protestant cause in France, yet the knighthood of Drake on the deck of his own ship at length declared the bent of her sympathy. The time had come for action: and the time seemed specially favourable to Philip. Sextus the Fifth was Pope, and he had created the league for the subversion of heresy, and the arch-heretic of Europe must be put away. The Prince of Parma was in the Netherlands ready to invade England. The Catholics in England would be united by the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Protestants themselves would be averse to the surrender of the throne to her son and his Scotch followers. So Philip thought, and slowly set the immense machinery of preparation to work.

Elizabeth possessed remarkable foresight and a remarkable dislike for definite action. Her foresight was as uncanny as an instinct, or her power of dissimulation, which is the art of diplomacy. Accordingly, it is probable that her efforts for peace, and the treaty which she patched up with the Prince of Parma, did not arise from any fear of war, but were a clever design to increase the proud confidence of the enemy by making him think that England was in reality in a state of panic, quite unprepared for war. She knew well of the preparations, and of their huge scale. Drake had sent news to Lord Burghley: "Assuredly," he wrote, "there never was heard of or known so great preparations as the King of Spain hath and daily maketh ready for the invasion of England." With daring he sailed into the very harbour of Cadiz and damaged more than a hundred tall ships. He was forbidden to do further damage. Spain's enterprise was not destined to be strangled at home.