While he remained off the mouth of the river, his lieutenant, Thomas Keymis, with five ships and four hundred men, undertook the great quest. For three weeks they battled against the mighty current, but when they approached the proposed landing-place they found a Spanish settlement blocking their path. This they stormed and burnt, Raleigh’s son being killed in the attack. Though the settlement was captured, the Spaniards were still in the woods, and Keymis, having done all that man could do, was forced to retreat. Raleigh met him with a bitter reproach——“You have undone me by your obstinacy.” Keymis said not a word, but betook himself to his cabin, where he ran a dagger through his heart.
Raleigh was now desperate. He proposed to go himself in search of the mine, but his men would not follow him. Then he suggested the capture of the Mexican Plate fleet; but they refused, saying that, even if they succeeded, the king would hang them when they got home. There was no help for it, so Raleigh was obliged to return to England. With angry reproaches to his “rabble of idle rascals,” he set sail, knowing well the fate which awaited him.
In June 1618 he was back at Plymouth, and was at once arrested. James was courting the favour of his “dear brother of Spain,” and the Spanish ambassador had obtained a promise from him that, “if Raleigh returned loaded with gold acquired by an attack on the subjects of the King of Spain, he would surrender it all, and would give up the authors of the crime to be hanged in the public square of Madrid.” Now the Spaniard claimed his victim, and James actually proposed to keep his word; but he dared not do so, for England now regarded Raleigh as a champion of English interests against Spanish tyranny. He was thereupon brought to trial. In the course of it the Attorney-General said, “Sir Walter Raleigh hath been as a star at which the world hath gazed; but stars may fall—nay, they must fall when they trouble the sphere where they abide.” There was a legal difficulty in the way: Raleigh was under sentence of death, and therefore could not be legally tried. The easiest way out of the difficulty was to order his execution on the old charge of treason. This was done. As Raleigh returned to his prison he remarked, “The world itself is but a larger prison, out of which some are daily selected for execution.”
On October 19, 1618, he was brought to the scaffold, which had been erected in Old Palace Yard. He met his fate cheerfully, and jested pleasantly even on the way to the block. He addressed the crowd in a well-known speech, thanking God heartily that He had brought him to die in the light, and not left him to perish obscurely in the dark prison of the Tower. He denied all accusations of treason, and defended himself against other charges. When he had finished he said, “And now I have a long journey to go, and must take my leave.” As he laid his head on the block the executioner bade him turn his head to the east. “What matter,” he answered, “how the head lies, so that the heart be right?” These noble words had hardly fallen from his lips when the axe descended.
THE BOYHOOD OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
(From the picture by Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., P.R.A., in the National Gallery of British Art.)
