"But since you have been found guilty of these horrible treasons, the judgment of this court is, that you shall be had from hence to the place whence you came, there to remain until the day of execution; and from thence you shall be drawn upon an hurdle through the open streets to the place of execution, there to be hanged and cut down alive; and your body shall be opened, your heart and bowels plucked out, and your privy members cut off, and thrown into the fire before your eyes; then your head to be stricken off from your body, and your body shall be divided into four quarters, to be disposed of at the King's pleasure; and God have mercy upon your soul!"
CHAPTER XVI
THE KING'S FARCE
Comments on Ralegh's fall—In the prison at Winchester—Ralegh begs mercy—His attitude explained—The King's own farce—Ralegh removed to London.
So ended the worst and greatest day of Ralegh's life. The Lord Cecil was victorious. Ralegh was overthrown. But from despair so poignant that reason yielded to its sway and he was driven to attempt madly to make away with himself, he had risen to make a defence so admirable against his accusers that men who heard and saw him at the trial, heard him with wonder and watched him with astonishment. And well they might. The man whose judgment had saved the situation at Cadiz from the reckless inexperience of Essex, whose patience and courage had taken an expedition far up the dangerous unknown rivers to Guiana, whose insight had discovered the poet Spenser and made him known to the world, showed the same insight and courage and patience and judgment at this trial when he was standing for his life against the combined assault of the cleverest brains in England, combined by the hope of future favours from a new King to work his overthrow. When one tired or stumbled, another was prompt to take his place; but always Ralegh remained alert and ready and steadfast—alone.
Sir Dudley Carleton was present at the trial and wrote an account of it to his friend, Mr. John Chamberlain. Carleton was at that time Secretary to the Earl of Northumberland. This is how he describes Ralegh's demeanour. "He answered with that temper, wit, learning, courage and judgment that save it went with the hazard of his life, it was the happiest day that ever he spent. And so well he shifted all advantages that were taken against him, that were not fama malum gravius quam res, and an ill-name half hanged, in the opinion of all men, he had been acquitted."
Carleton proceeds to tell his friend of two others who were present and who were the first to bring the news of the trial to the King at Wilton. One was Roger Ashton. He said that never any one spoke so well in times past nor would do in the world to come. The other was a Scotchman. He said that whereas when he saw Ralegh first, he was so led with the common hatred that he would have gone a hundred miles to have seen him hanged, he would ere he parted, have gone a thousand to have saved his life. And Carleton comments on this aptly enough: "In one word never was a man so hated and so popular in so short a time."
Dudley Carleton was quite right in saying an "ill name is half hanged." The trial was the merest farce. The judges were determined that Ralegh must be condemned, as soon as Ralegh was arrested. They knew that such was the King's will: and Ralegh's condemnation had become the King's will owing to the astute management of Cecil. There were many reasons for Cecil's line of action. Both James and he knew that there must be a large number of people in England disaffected to the new sovereign. It was advisable to open the reign by an illustrious example. Ralegh was a powerful man, whose powers Cecil knew and feared. Moreover, Ralegh had original ideas about government which fitted ill with Cecil's conception of himself as the chief man in England under an absolute King. So Cecil for a long time had been playing upon the King's fears, knowing well the King's timorous nature. And then, when the time came, he showed his zeal for the King by delivering Ralegh into his power. His known intimacy with Ralegh, upon which he took every opportunity of harping at the trial and elsewhere, would lend bright colour to his loyalty to the King.