RETURN TO THE TOWER (June-August, 1618).
[Sidenote: _Bayley's Calumnies._]
He arrived in his flagship the Destiny at Plymouth on June 21. No other
ships accompanied him. At the news Lady Ralegh, sorrowing and glad,
hastened from London. No painter has tried to portray the meeting, one
of the most pathetic scenes in English history. His return had long been
provided for by others than his noble wife. Captain Bayley, who stole
away from Lancerota early in September, 1617, reached England in
October. There he skulked about, spreading his fable that he had
deserted because he was persuaded Ralegh intended to turn pirate. He
circulated among his friends copies of a journal kept by him while he
remained in the fleet, in which that view was enforced. The Lord
Admiral, no partial friend of Ralegh's, had his ship and cargo seized,
and himself summoned before the Privy Council. But later in October, as
has been mentioned, Winwood died. On November 18 the Council wrote to
the Lord Admiral to release the vessel and goods. It asked if the
Admiral had discovered anything against the Captain, or could clear
doubts which had been raised of Ralegh's courses and intentions. Reeks,
of Ratcliff, had saved his ship through Ralegh's refusal to gratify the
desire of his men for revenge at Lancerota. He arrived in December,
1617, and told how forbearing Ralegh had been, and how treacherous the
Governor. Men like Carew had never put faith in assertions by creatures
of Bayley's stamp, who 'maliced' him, that Ralegh had turned pirate.
'That for my part I would never believe,' wrote Carew. But the evidence
of Reeks convinced for the instant even sceptics. Bayley was committed
to Westminster Gate-house. On January 11, 1618, he appeared before the
Council. The Council declared he had behaved himself undutifully and
contemptuously, not only in flying from his General upon false and
frivolous suggestions without any just cause at all, but also in
defaming him. Allegations by him of treasonable expressions which he had
heard Mr. Hastings report Ralegh to have uttered, were held to deepen
his offence. If they were true, it was misprision of treason in him to
have concealed the matter for a twelvemonth. An account of the inquiry
has been printed by Mr. Gardiner in the _Camden Miscellany_ from the
Council Register. At its termination he was committed to prison, from
which he was not liberated till the end of February. At the Council
Carew, Arundel, Compton, Zouch, and Hay had been present. They all were
friendly to Ralegh.
[Sidenote: _Piratas!_]
[Sidenote: _A Royal disavowal._]
By May 13 came the news of the burning of St. Thomas, and Ralegh's
well-wishers had no longer strength to defend him. It had reached Madrid
earlier. Cottington wrote, on May 3, that the Spanish Ministers had
advice of Ralegh's landing and proceedings. He made no comment, unless
that the Spaniards were confident Ralegh would discover no gold or
silver in those parts. On the arrival of the intelligence in London the
story, which it is a pity to have to doubt, is that Gondomar burst into
the royal chamber, in spite of assurances that the King was engaged. He
said he needed to utter but a single word. It was 'Piratas! Piratas!
Piratas!' On June 11 James published a Proclamation. It denounced as
'scandalous and enormous outrages' the hostile invasion of the town of
San Thome, as reported by 'a common fame,' and the malicious breaking of
the peace 'which hath been so happily established, and so long
inviolately continued.' Gondomar had set off on a visit to Madrid. James
hoped he would be able to conclude, by his personal representations, the
negotiations for the marriage. He was overtaken at Greenwich by a royal
messenger with an ill-written letter from Villiers, dated June 26: 'His
Majesty will be as severe in punishing them as if they had done the like
spoil in any of the cities of England. Howbeit Sir Walter Ralegh had
returned with his ship's lading of gold, being taken from the King of
Spain or his subjects, he would have sent unto the King of Spain back
again as well his treasures as himself, according to his first and
precedent promise, which he made unto your Excellency, the which he is
resolute to accomplish precisely against the persons and upon the goods
of them the offenders therein, it not being so that he doth understand
that the same also shall seem well to the King of Spain, to be most
convenient and exemplary that they should suffer here so severe
punishments as such like crime doth require.' On his knees George Carew
pleaded in vain. James would only promise that Ralegh should be heard.
He intimated that he had predetermined the result: 'As good hang him as
deliver him to the King of Spain; and one of these two I must, if the
case be as Gondomar has represented.' In vain Captain North pictured the
miseries which had been endured. He showed no pity for the lost son, the
ruined fortune, the shattered hopes. Peiresc wrote from the Continent to
Camden to condole on the ill-success of 'miser Raleghus.' James's sole
thought was how most profitably to sacrifice him. He held out to the
Escurial the prospect of an ignominious death in due course. In the
meantime he engaged to indemnify any plundered Spanish subjects out of
the offender's property. The offer brought upon him two years afterwards
a claimant for tobacco to the value of L40,000. Francis Davila, of San
Thome, appears to have succeeded in obtaining L750 of the amount from
Ralegh's cousin and comrade, Herbert.
[Sidenote: _Sir Lewis Stukely._]
Ralegh on his arrival at Plymouth heard of the King's Proclamation. His
follower, Samuel King, who had commanded a fly-boat in the expedition,
says in his _Narrative_, written after the execution, that Ralegh had
resolved to surrender voluntarily. The Court did not believe it. The
seizure of the Destiny had previously been ordered. On June 12 the Lord
Admiral had directed Sir Lewis Stukely to arrest Ralegh himself, and
bring him to London. Stukely was Vice-Admiral of Devon, having bought
the office for L600. He was nephew to Sir Richard Grenville, of the
Revenge. Thus, though subsequently he seemed to deny it, he was related
to Ralegh. His father had served in the second Virginia voyage. Ralegh
had solicited the favour of Cecil for the family. Stukely could boast of
sixteen quarterings, and possessed the remains of a considerable
inheritance at Afton or Affeton. But he was a man of broken fortunes and
doubtful character. In the second week of July Ralegh, his wife, and
Captain King had started for London. Close to Ashburton Stukely met
them. Ralegh did not dispute his authority, though Stukely admitted he
was without a formal warrant, which, according to his own account, did
not reach him till he and his prisoner had arrived at Salisbury. The
whole party returned the twenty miles to Plymouth. There for nine or ten
days Ralegh, who was sick, and glad of rest, lodged, first at the house
of Sir Christopher Harris, and next with Mr. Drake. He saw little or
nothing of his keeper, who was selling tobacco and the stores of the
Destiny. It has been imagined that Stukely meant to tempt him to fly,
and then display his dexterity by intercepting him. The laxity of the
supervision and the delay give colour rather to a supposition that the
Government wished him actually to escape. That would have relieved it
from a heavy embarrassment. Out of affection Lady Ralegh and Captain
King had the same desire, and at length they gained his consent. King
negotiated with two Rochelle captains, Flory and le Grand, for his
conveyance across the Channel. One night King and he rowed off to one of
the barks. When a quarter of a mile from the ship Ralegh insisted upon
returning. According to one account he seems to have been once more
persuaded to start, and again his heart failed him, or perhaps his
courage revived. He was still buoyed up with romantic fancies, which he
had cherished ever since the disappointment on the Orinoko. Until he saw
death or a dungeon yawning in front of him, he kept a fond faith that he
should be authorized to lead one more forlorn hope.
Peremptory directions at last came from the Council. Ralegh perceived that
he was regarded as a criminal, and he foresaw the end as it was to be. He
declared that his trust in the King had undone him, and that he should have
to die to please the State. He repented that he had not seized the
opportunity to escape, and began to form fresh plans. It has been said that
at Plymouth his fortitude deserted him. Mr. Gardiner has suggested the very
improbable motive for his aversion from a return to London, that he feared
he might be torn in pieces by the mob. It was not courage, but patience,
which failed. He could not bear the thought of losing the power to strike
another blow for the fulfilment of his darling ambition.
[Sidenote: _Manourie._]
Stukely closed his sales, and set off, we are told, on July 25, though
more probably the journey began some days earlier. The company consisted
of himself, Ralegh, and Lady Ralegh, with their servants, King, and a
Frenchman, Manourie, who is said to have brought Stukely his regular
warrant. Manourie, who had been long settled in Devonshire, has been
variously described as a physician and as a quack. Two centuries and a
half ago the distinction between charlatans and experimentalists was not
clearly marked in medical science. Ralegh seems to have suspected that
he was a spy, but to have believed in his skill. The man may not have
been the medical impostor popular resentment believed him. Undoubtedly
he was needy and greedy, and a perfidious rogue. From the first he laid
traps. He reported to Stukely, or invented, an ejaculation by Ralegh, on
hearing of the orders for London: 'God's wounds! Is it possible that my
fortune should thus return upon me again?' He told how Ralegh cried as
they rode by Sherborne Park: 'All this was mine, and it was taken from
me unjustly.' Nothing could be more true.
[Sidenote: _The Counterfeit Disease._]
They had slept on the night of July 26 at the house of old Mr. Parham,
who lived, with his son, Sir Edward Parham, close to Sherborne. Next
day, July 27, they journeyed to Salisbury by Wilton. On the hill beyond
Wilton, Ralegh, as he walked down it with Manourie, asked him to prepare
an emetic: 'It will be good,' Manourie asserted that he said, 'to
evacuate bad humours; and by its means I shall gain time to work my
friends and order my affairs; perhaps even to pacify his Majesty.' The
summer Progress was proceeding. Ralegh knew that, in pursuance of its
programme, the King would stay at Salisbury. That night at Salisbury he
turned dizzy. Notwithstanding, or because he desired to spare her a
discreditable scene, in the morning Lady Ralegh, with her retinue of
servants, continued her journey to London. King went too. He was to hire
a boat, which was to lie off Tilbury. According to him, the design was
that Ralegh should stop in France till the anger of Spain was lulled.
After their departure a servant of Ralegh's rushed to Stukely with the
news that his master was out of his wits, in his shirt, and upon all
fours, gnawing at the rushes on the boards. Stukely sent Manourie to
him. Manourie administered the emetic, and also an ointment compounded
of aquafortis. This brought out purple pustules over the breast and
arms. Strangers, and after a single visit Stukely too, were afraid to
approach. Lancelot Andrewes, then Bishop of Ely, happened to be at
Salisbury. He heard, and compassionately sent the best three physicians
of the town. None of them could explain the sickness. For four days the
cavalcade halted. Ralegh subsisted on a clandestine leg of mutton, and
wrote his _Apology for the Voyage to Guiana_, from which I have already
drawn for his view of disputed facts. Manourie he employed to copy his
manuscript. The wish to compose the narrative is believed by some to
have been the sole motive of his artifice. His own subsequent account of
it was that he had speculated on an interview with the King. With that
view he had compassed a delay. How an apparent attack of leprosy should
have helped him to an interview is not very intelligible. Chamberlain
wrote to Carleton on August 8 that Ralegh had no audience of James on
account of his malady. Probably the ruling motive of the comedy was a
passionate desire to win leisure for drawing up his narrative, which he
wildly hoped he might find means of bringing before the King during his
sojourn at Salisbury. That was the audience he really desired. As soon
as the treatise was written he recovered. Not now or afterwards was he
at all ashamed of the deception. So given was he to physicking himself,
that it occurred to him as a natural thing to use his drugs in order to
gain a few quiet literary days. He justified his pretence by the example
of David: 'David did make himself a fool, and suffered spittle to fall
upon his beard, that he might escape the hands of his enemies.'
[Sidenote: _Consistency of his Position._]
The statement which he had stolen a respite to write has been considered
by Mr. Gardiner, in his _Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage_, an
aggravation of his guilt. The claim it sets up of his right to sweep
opposing Spaniards out of his way to the Mine, is treated as an
admission that he had founded his enterprise on a lie, and that his sin
had found him out. Mr. Gardiner adds he must have known that his case
would not bear the light. Apparently this means that he had asserted, or
had fraudulently suffered James to infer, that no Spaniards were settled
in the vicinity of Keymis's Mine, or were in the least likely to
withstand in arms his approach to it; or that he had made a promise, of
which the resistance of his men to the Spanish attack was a breach, in
no circumstances to fight. These are unproved assumptions. Ralegh, who
constitutionally took his instructions from Secretary Winwood, cannot be
shown to have given, or been asked for, any positive pledge that in no
circumstances would he force his way into the interior of Guiana. The
warlike equipment of his fleet, and of the men he led, is evidence that
the contingency of a collision with armed Spanish ships and soldiers was
contemplated by the Government and prepared for. The nature of the
business on which James had despatched him fully authorized the claim
in the _Apology_. He was sent to work a mine on the Orinoko, where the
whole commercial world knew that Spaniards were settled. James must have
known it from many sources. He knew it definitely from Gondomar, whose
protests against the expedition were based particularly on it. Any
'guilt' of Ralegh's for letting his followers run the gauntlet of the
San Thome garrison, James must share equally for letting him go with an
armed squadron to the Orinoko at all.
[Sidenote: _Manourie's Story._]
On the first of August, when the _Apology_ was already completed, the
King arrived at Salisbury. It is not known whether Ralegh succeeded in
having the composition at once laid before him. If the King saw it, we
may be certain that it exerted upon the royal mind the precise reverse
of the conciliatory effect the writer anticipated. Orders immediately
were issued that Ralegh should move forward. Thereupon, according to
Manourie, Ralegh bribed him with twenty crowns, and an offer of L50 a
year, to aid his escape. On the same suspicious testimony, he was
furious against the King, and uttered menaces. Ralegh informed Manourie
of King's Tilbury project. He said he must fly, for 'a man that fears is
never secure.' Further, he asserted his conviction that the courtiers
had concluded among them 'a man must die to reassure the traffic which
he had broken in Spain.' Manourie pretended Ralegh handed to him jewels
and money for the purchase of Stukely's connivance. Ralegh acknowledged
he had told Stukely he hoped to procure payment of his debts. Any offers
beyond this he denied. At Staines Manourie left. He said to Ralegh, whom
he was betraying to prison and death, that he did not expect to see him
again while Ralegh was in England. It is a pity his figure cannot be
wholly obliterated from Ralegh's biography, on which it is one of
several ugly human blurs.
[Sidenote: _Interview with French Agents._]
At Brentford a more loyal but as unlucky a Frenchman, David de Novion,
came to meet Ralegh at the inn. He brought a message from le Clerc, the
French Resident, that he wished to see Ralegh. The Government knew of
this, and thought that, by affecting ignorance, it might learn more. On
July 30 had arrived a Council warrant for Ralegh's committal to the
Tower. It was not at once executed. Before he left Salisbury it had been
conceded through the mediation, it is said, of Digby, touched by his
apparent infirmities at Salisbury, that he should be conveyed to his own
house in Broad-street, for four or five days' rest. He now obtained
leave to have that arrangement confirmed or resumed. Naunton told
Carleton that he procured the permission on a pretence of sickness, that
he might take medicine at home. Probably it was granted that he might be
tempted to plan an escape with the Frenchmen, and give the Government an
excuse for more rigour. On the night of Friday, August 7, he arrived in
Broad-street, where he found Lady Ralegh. On the evening of Sunday, at
eight, le Clerc and de Novion came. They showed little caution, speaking
freely in the presence of eight or ten persons. They intimated he might
count on their help in his flight, and on a good reception in France.
The French interest in Ralegh was an anti-Spanish interest. If safe in
France he could, it was thought, exercise in some not very apparent way
influence in England against the Anglo-Spanish alliance. Queen Anne was
understood to prefer vehemently a French to a Spanish bride for Prince
Charles. The French dealings with Ralegh, it was believed at the time,
had been prompted by the Queen or her confidants. Ralegh seems to have
listened to his French visitors with grateful courtesy, but not to have
accepted any offer of French assistance. He intended to make his way to
France. He would not go in a French vessel.
[Sidenote: _Preparations for Flight._]
The plan on which he decided had been concerted with King. A former
boatswain of King's, called Hart, had a ketch. Cottrell, apparently
Ralegh's old Tower servant, who had once before borne witness against
him, had found Hart for King. Before Ralegh reached London, King had
arranged with Hart through Cottrell that the ketch should be held ready
off Tilbury. Implicit trust was placed in Cottrell's supposed devotion
to Ralegh. In reality he and Hart had at once betrayed the whole
arrangement to a Mr. William Herbert, not the Herbert of the Guiana
Expedition. Herbert told Sir William St. John, who in 1616 had traded in
Ralegh's liberation. St. John in company, it would seem from Stukely's
subsequent account, with Herbert, had posted off with the news to
Salisbury. He had met Stukely and his prisoner at Bagshot on the road,
and warned the former, who scarcely required the information. Stukely
showed such zeal for Ralegh's safety as wholly to delude both him and
King. He had obtained a licence from Naunton to enter, without
liability, into any contract, and comply with any offer. Though in
theory Ralegh was under his charge in Broad-street, he left him full
liberty of action. Ralegh's own servants were allowed to wait on him.
Stukely borrowed L10 of him. The pretence was a wish to pay for the
despatch into the country of his own servants, that they might not
interfere with the flight. He promised to accompany Ralegh into France.
Ralegh, with all his wit and experience of men, his wife, with her love
and her clearness of vision, the shrewd French diplomatists, and honest
King, were dupes of a mere cormorant, like Stukely, and of vulgar
knaves, like Cottrell and Hart. Without the least suspicion of foul play
Ralegh on that Sunday night, after le Clerc and de Novion had left, went
down to the river side.
It was a foolish business. Nothing, except success, could have been more
woful than all its features and its failure. If the attempt be blamed as
rebellion against the law, the correctness of the condemnation cannot be
disputed. Ralegh derived no right to fly from the injustice of his
treatment. Had he been of the nature of Socrates he would not have
thought of flight. His respect for authority was not like that of
Socrates. His conscience never particularly troubled him for the
immorality of his endeavour to break from custody. It stung him very
soon and sharply for the degradation of having run from danger. Flight
was unworthy of him, and he acknowledged its shame. But his own account
of the temptation to which he yielded may be accepted as truthful. He
told Sir Thomas Wilson his intention was to seek an asylum in France
from Spanish vengeance, until 'the Queen should have made means for his
pardon and recalling.' In England he was doomed, he foresaw, to death or
to perpetual confinement; and he believed he had work in life still to
do. He feared neither death nor prison for itself. In a paroxysm of
despair he clutched the only chance he perceived of reserving his powers
for the enterprise he had set them, the overthrow of the colonial
monopoly of Spain.
[Sidenote: _On the Thames._]
[Sidenote: _Stukely Unmasked._]
Two wherries were hired at the Tower dock. Ralegh, attended by one of
his pages, Stukely, Stukely's son, King, and Hart, set off. Sir William
St. John and Herbert followed secretly in another boat. Ralegh wore a
false beard and a hat with a green band. Stukely asked King whether thus
far he had not acted as an honest man. King replied by a hope that he
would continue to act thus. Herbert's boat was seen first making as if
it would go through the bridge; but finally it returned down the river.
Ralegh became alarmed. He asked the watermen if they would row on,
though one came to arrest him in the King's name. They answered they
could at all events not go beyond Gravesend. Ralegh explained that a
brabbling matter with the Spanish Ambassador was taking him to Tilbury
to embark for the Low Countries. He offered them ten gold pieces.
Thereupon Stukely began cursing himself that he should be so unfortunate
as to venture his life and fortune with a man full of doubt. He swore he
would kill the watermen if they did not row on. The delays spent the
tide, and the men said they could not reach Gravesend before morning.
When they were a mile beyond Woolwich, at a reach called the Gallions,
near Plumstead, Ralegh felt sure he was betrayed, and ordered the men to
row back. Herbert's and St. John's wherry met them. Then Ralegh, wishing
to remain in Stukely's custody, declared himself his prisoner. He still
supposed the man was faithful. He pulled things out of his pocket and
gave them to Stukely, who hugged him with tenderness. They landed at
Greenwich, Ralegh intending to go to Stukely's house. But the other crew
landed also. Now at last Stukely revealed his true character. He
arrested Ralegh and King in his Majesty's name, and committed them to
the charge of two of St. John's men. Ralegh understood, and said: 'Sir
Lewis, these actions will not turn out to your credit.' With a generous
thoughtfulness for a very different man, he tried to induce King to give
himself out for an accomplice in Stukely's plot. King could not be
persuaded. Ralegh and he were kept separate till the morning, when
Ralegh was conducted to the Tower. As once more he passed within, he
must have felt that his tomb had opened for him. King was allowed to
attend him to the gate. There he was compelled to part. He left Ralegh,
he wrote after the execution, 'to His tuition with whom I do not doubt
but his soul resteth.' Ralegh's farewell words to him were: 'Stukely and
Cottrell have betrayed me.'