The state of his health incapacitated Raleigh from conducting the expedition on the Orinoco and searching for the expected mines of the precious metals—gold more especially. He despatched a party under the command of Captain Keymis; his son Walter, and George Raleigh, his nephew, accompanied the expedition. Its result was disastrous. Keymis attacked a Spanish settlement—San Thomé; and young Walter Raleigh lost his life in the fight. Keymis, with a remnant of the men left with him, fled in the belief that a powerful Spanish force was in pursuit. When Raleigh and Keymis met, the admiral was severe in his reproof, and required from him such explanation of his conduct as he could give for the satisfaction of His Majesty and the State. Keymis, in great dejection, committed suicide. The crews mutinied, and became quite unmanageable; and the ships returned, each as the crews could find their way, to English ports. On the 21st May, Raleigh in the Destiny reached Kinsale harbour, and on the 21st June arrived at Plymouth, infirm in body, broken in spirit, penniless, dejected, and destitute.
Intrigues against Raleigh were originated and stimulated by Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador. He was beset with spies, who ensnared him into acts and confessions—to be employed against him. Sir Lewis Stukely, a cousin of Raleigh, an infamous wretch, was the traitor of the miserable drama. Again the grand old man had to stand his trial; the charge now was, of having abused the king’s confidence by setting out to find gold in a mine which never existed, with instituting a piratical attack upon a peaceful Spanish settlement, with attempting to capture the Mexican Plate fleet, although he had been specially warned that he would take his life in his hands, if he committed any one of these three faults.
Raleigh was tried before the Commissioners on 22nd October. He denied having had any intention of stirring up war between England and Spain, and declared that he had confidently believed in the existence of the gold mine. He confessed that in case of his failing to find the mine, he would if he could have taken the Mexican fleet. At the close of the examination, Lord Francis Bacon, in the name of the commissioners, said that he was guilty of abusing the confidence of King James, and of injuring the subjects of Spain, and that he must prepare to die,—being already civilly dead. Execution was ordered upon the Winchester sentence of 1603. On the 28th October 1618 he was roused from his bed in the Tower, where he lay suffering from a severe attack of ague. The order of movement was so hurried that the barber remarked that his master had not had time to comb his head. “Let them comb it that are to have it,” said Raleigh. He had been brought first to Westminster Hall from the Tower, and from the Hall was taken to the Gate House. On the way he told his old friend, Sir Hugh Beeston, “to secure a good place at the show next morning, adding that he (Raleigh) was sure of one.” His cousin, Francis Thynne, suggested that he should be more serious, lest his enemies should report his levity. Raleigh rejoined, “It is my last mirth in this world, do not grudge it to me.” The good Dr. Tounson, Dean of Westminster, a stranger to Raleigh, was puzzled by his conduct, but confessed his admiration. After the execution, he reported “he was the most fearless of death he had ever known, and the most resolute and confident, yet with reverence and conscience.”
LORD FRANCIS BACON.
It was late, on the evening before the date fixed for execution, when Lady Raleigh knew that the end was so near. She hastened to the Gate House, and remained till midnight with her husband, from whom she had been so much parted involuntarily, and from whom she was to be so soon finally separated in this life.
In the morning the dean visited Raleigh in the Gate House, and administered the Eucharist. He ate a hearty breakfast, and smoked a pipe of tobacco. The servant brought him a cup of sack, and, after he had drunk, asked if the wine was to his liking. “I may answer you,” said Raleigh, “as the fellow did on his way to Tyburn. ‘It is good drink, if a man might stay by it.’” As they passed through the dense crowd that had assembled, Raleigh noticed a very old man bareheaded. He pulled off the rich laced cap that he was wearing, and, throwing it to the old man with the remark, “Friend, you need this more than I do,” passed on himself bareheaded.
On the scaffold he delivered an ingenious and eloquent speech that occupied nearly half an hour. At the windows of an adjacent house he noticed a number of noblemen and gentlemen with whom he had been connected in his foreign adventures, or associated in public affairs. Amongst others were the Earls of Arundel, Oxford, and Northampton. He seemed anxious that they should hear his vindication of his conduct, and apologised for the weakness of his voice, whereupon they came down, solemnly embraced him, and took their places around him on the scaffold. He prayed that the company might bear with him, because this was the third day of his fever, which might cause him to show weakness. “I thank God,” he said, “that He has sent me to die in the light and not in darkness. I also thank God that He has suffered me to die before such an assembly of honourable witnesses, and not obscurely in the Tower, where for the space of thirteen years together I have been oppressed with many miseries. And I return Him thanks that my fever hath not taken me at this time, as I prayed to Him that it might not, that I might clear myself of such accusations unjustly laid to my charge, and leave behind me the testimony of a true heart both to my king and country.”
His speech was ingenious and eloquent, and well fitted to move the sympathy of his hearers. He closed his address—
“And now I entreat that you will all join me in prayer to the great God of heaven, whom I have grievously offended, being a man full of all vanity, who has lived a sinful life in such callings as have been most inducing to it; for I have been a soldier, a sailor, and a courtier, which are courses of wickedness and vice; that His almighty goodness will forgive me, that He will cast away my sins, and that He will receive me into everlasting life.—So I take my leave of you all, making my peace with God.”