[Illustration: Decoration]
And so it happened that Sir Walter Raleigh, the graceful, the gracious,
the generous, had spread his cloak in the pathway of Queen Elizabeth
and had been taken into her especial favor.
The Queen was nineteen years older than Sir Walter; that is to say, she
was in her fifties, and he was in his thirties.
But Queen Bess hated old age, and swore a halibi for the swift passing
years, and always delighted in the title of the "Virgin Queen."
Sir Walter did one great thing for England, and one for Ireland. He
taught the English the use of tobacco, and he discovered the "Irish
potato"--which is native to America.
They do say that Sir Walter and Queen Elizabeth enjoyed many a quiet
smoke with their feet on the table--so as to equalize circulation. Both
of them were big folk, with plans and ambitions plus. Sir Walter was
contemporary with Shakespeare, and in fact looked like him, acted like
him and had a good deal of the same agile, joyous, bubbling fertility
of mind. That is, Sir Walter and William were lovers by nature; and
love rightly exercised, and alternately encouraged and thwarted, gives
the alternating current, and lo! we have that which the world calls
genius. And I am told by those who know, that you can never get genius
in any other way.
Good Queen Bess--who was not so very good--fanned the ambitions of Sir
Walter and flattered his abilities. And of course any man born in a
lowly station, or high, would have been immensely complimented by the
gentle love-taps, and sighs, vain or otherwise, not to mention the
glimmering glances of the alleged Virgin Queen.
But a good way to throttle love is to spy on it, question it, analyze
it, vivisect it. And so Sir Walter's bubbling heart had chills of fear
when he discovered that he was being followed wherever he went by the
secret emissaries of Elizabeth.
Had he been free to act he would have disposed of these spies, and
quickly too; but he was in thrall to a Queen, and was paying for his
political power by being deprived of his personality. Oho, and Oho!
The law of compensation acted then as now, and nothing is ever given
away; everything is bought with a price--even the favors of royalty.
And behold! In the palace of the Queen, as janitor, gardener, scullion
and all-around handy man was one John White, obscure, and yet elevated
on account of his lack of wit.
He was so stupid that he was amusing. Sayings bright and clever that
courtiers flung off when the wine went around were imputed to John
White. Thus he came to have a renown which was not his own; and Sir
Walter Raleigh, with his cheery, generous ways, attributed many a quiet
quip and quillet to John White which John White had never thought nor
said.
Now John White had a daughter, Eleanor by name, tall and fair and
gracious, bearing in her veins the blood of Vikings bold; and her
yellow hair blew in the breeze as did the yellow hair of those
conquerors who discovered America and built the blockhouses along the
coast of Rhode Island.
Doubtless in his youth John White had a deal of sturdy worth, but a
bump on the sconce at some Donnybrook Fair early in his young manhood
had sent his wits a woolgathering.
But the girl was not thus handicapped; her mind was alert and eager.
The mother of Eleanor had passed away, and the girl had grown
strong and able in spirit through carrying burdens and facing
responsibilities. She knew the limitations of her father and she knew
his worth; and she also knew that he was a sort of unofficial fool for
the court, being duly installed through the clever and heedless tongue
of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Who would ever have thought that Sir Walter, the diplomat, the strong,
the able, was to be brought low by this fair-haired daughter of John
White, the court fool!
"You are Sir Walter Raleigh," said this girl of nineteen one day to Sir
Walter when they met squarely face to face in a hallway. It was a bold
thing to do to stop this statesman, and she only a daughter to a court
fool, and herself a worker below stairs!
Sir Walter smiled, removed his hat in mock gallantry, and said, "I have
the honor to be your obedient servant. And who are you?"
The girl, bouyed up by a combination of pride and fear, replied, "I
am Eleanor White, the daughter of the man whom your wit has rendered
famous." And their eyes met in level, steady look. Fair femininity
aroused caught the eye and the ear of Sir Walter.
"Yes," said he, "I think I have seen you. And what can I do for you?"
"Only this," said Eleanor, "that from this day forth you will not
attribute any more of your ribaldry to my father."
"Otherwise, what?" asked Sir Walter.
"Otherwise you will have me to deal with," said the proud Eleanor, and
walked past him.
He tried to call her back; he felt humiliated that she did not turn and
look, much less listen. He had been snubbed.
The banderilla went home, and the next day Sir Walter felt that he must
hunt out this girl with the yellow locks and make peace with her, for
surely he of all men did not want to hurt the feeling of any living
being, neither did he want his own feelings hurt.
So he sought her out, and that which began in a quarrel soon evolved
into something else. There were meetings by moonlight, notes passed,
glances given, hand-clasps in the dark, and all of those absurd,
foolish, irrelevant and unnecessary things that lovers do.
The girl was not of noble birth. But neither was Sir Walter, for that
matter. Love knows nothing of titles and position. But how could these
two ever imagine that they could elude the gimlet eyes of Good Queen
Bess, who wasn't so very good! Queen Elizabeth had ways of punishing
that were exquisite, deep, delicate and far-reaching, which touched the
very marrow of the soul.
Sir Walter had been presented by the Queen with a title to all the land
in America, from Nova Scotia to Florida; and he, in pretty compliment,
had officially named this tract of land Virginia.
The French had taken possession of the New World at the North, and
the Spaniards at the South, and along the coast of what is now North
Carolina the English had planted a colony.
It was the intention of Sir Walter to send expeditions over and take
the whole land captive, so that Virginia would in fact be the land of
the Virgin Queen.
At the center of this tract along the coast was to be the city of
Raleigh. The Queen and Sir Walter had worked this out at length, and
she had given him a special charter for the great city to be.
And now behold! She, with the mind of a man, had perfected her plans
for the building of the city of Raleigh. She planned an expedition, and
fitted out the ships with sixty men and women from a receiving-ship
that lay in the Thames.
These people were being sent out of England for England's good. And
these were the people who were to found the city of Raleigh; and the
Governor of this colony was to be--John White! he was to be the first
mayor, Lord Mayor, of the city of Raleigh.
Queen Elizabeth had selected a husband for Eleanor White, an unknown
youth--a defective, in fact, and one without moral or mental
responsibility. She had forced a marriage, or in any event had recorded
it as such. The youth was known as Ananias Dare. Even in the naming
of this individual, who had never dared anything, the name "Ananias"
carried with it a subtle sting.
John White and his daughter Eleanor, and Ananias Dare, were taken
forcibly and put on the ship, which was duly provisioned, and the order
given to found the city of Raleigh on the Island of Roanoke in the
country called Virginia. A suitable sailor was selected as navigator,
and orders were given him to land the colonists, and come back.
And so the expedition sailed away for the New World; and Sir Walter
Raleigh in the secret of his room beat his head in anguish 'gainst the
wall and called aloud for death to come and relieve him of his pain.
And thus did Queen Elizabeth dispose of her rival, and punish with
fantastic hate and jealousy the man she loved.
John White, Eleanor and Ananias Dare, with the motley group of
unskilled men and women, were duly landed in the forest on Roanoke
Island. Battle with the elements requires judgment, skill, experience,
and these were things that our poor colonists did not possess.
Two weeks after landing on Roanoke Island a daughter was born to
Eleanor. The captain of the ship had given orders that if the babe was
a boy it was to be named Walter Raleigh Dare; if a girl the name was to
be Virginia.
And they called the child Virginia Dare, and her name was so recorded
in the history of the colony. She was duly baptized a week later,
and the record of her birth and baptism still exists in the Colonial
Archives in London.
This was the first white child born in America.
Very shortly after the baptism of the babe, the captain of the ship
sailed away for England, leaving the colonists in their ignorance and
helplessness to battle with the elements, wild beasts, and Indians as
best they could.
We can imagine with what cruel delight Queen Elizabeth called Sir
Walter Raleigh into her presence and had him read aloud to her and the
assembled court the record of the birth of Virginia Dare.
As for the colonists, their days were few and evil. Dissensions and
feuds arose, as they naturally would. John White was deposed as
Governor, and when he resisted he was killed.
The idea of going to work, tilling the soil, and building a permanent
settlement was not in the hearts of those people. They expected to find
gold and silver and fountains of youth. They felt they were marooned,
robbed and stranded. The Indians, at first fearful, were now jealous
of these white intruders. The quarrel came and the Indians fell upon
the colonists and killed every one. Every one, did I say? There was one
saved; it was the little white baby, Virginia Dare.
She was rescued by a squaw, who but a short time before had lost her
own babe, and her hungry mother heart went out to that helpless little
white waif. She seized upon the child and carried it away into the
forest for safety.