“With two thousand gowns she may well afford to spoil one for every shower,” said one lady to another. This was before the days of umbrellas, but there was nothing to do save to hope for sunshine. The hour for the walk came, and the queen went forth. The sun had come out.
“Someone has been praying for clear skies,” said she, “and verily I wish he had broadened his prayer a bit and prayed also for dry ground.”
“It must have been young Raleigh,” said one of the ladies to another a little pointedly. “He loves to dwell in the sunshine as the moth loves the beam of the candle.”
“There isn’t another man in England who can tell just what to do in any difficulty as well as he,” declared another lady.
“Then I would that he were here now,” whispered the first. “The queen will go straight across that miry place, and if she is ill, we shall have to bear the blame.”
“There he comes as if he had been sent for by courier,” said the second, for Raleigh was approaching. He was decked out in the bravest attire and was daintily picking his way along the muddy road.
“It’s but this day week that he had a new scarlet cloak,” said a lady in the train, “and see the gorgeousness of the blue plush that he wears this morning! I’ll warrant he put his last shilling into it.”
The queen hesitated a moment, but there was no hesitation in Raleigh. Quick as thought, he slipped off the shining blue plush mantle and spread it on the ground before Elizabeth.
“She who is to her devoted people the glory of the sunlight must never fail to see under her feet the reflection of that clear sky which her shining has bestowed upon her fortunate subjects.” So said the courtier, and he well knew that in the glance of approval given him by Elizabeth lay the promise of many cloaks.
He rose rapidly in the queen’s favor. She gave him whatever he asked, and he did not hesitate to ask for what he wanted. Elizabeth had a fashion of rewarding a favorite by giving him a “monopoly,” as it was called, that is, the sole right to sell some one thing. One man had the right to sell gunpowder, another salt, while yet another was the only man in England who was allowed to collect and export old shoes. To Raleigh she gave the privilege of exporting woolen cloth, and at another time the sole right to sell wine in the kingdom. He was no longer a poor young courtier, straining every resource to dress as handsomely as the taste of the queen demanded. Now he wore silver armor that sparkled with rubies and pearls and diamonds. Even his shoes were so encrusted with jewels that they were said to be worth more than six thousand gold pieces. Money flowed freely into his coffers. Besides Elizabeth’s other gifts, he could ask for his monopolies whatever price he chose, and whoever wished to buy must pay it. There were rumors that this brilliant young favorite had higher aspirations, even to the hand of the queen herself. The story is told that one day when Raleigh was standing by a window, tracing idly scrolls and letters on the pane with a diamond, he heard the queen coming up softly behind him. He went on as if he did not know of her presence and wrote on the glass:—