Such was the end of Ralegh's long period of waiting. The tragedy is great and real. He had trusted to Captain Keymis implicitly; and Keymis, through excess of loyalty, had failed him. The only fault in either is that each was a little too true to his own character. Keymis's death shook Ralegh to the depths of his nature. Now more than ever he had need of men staunch as the dead Keymis.
For mutiny broke out among the men. Captains Whitney and Wollaston deserted. The men declared that they had joined the expedition merely to loot the Spaniards and plunder they would have. The mine had failed. Well, they would turn pirates and attack the Spanish fleet on its way home. They threatened to throw Ralegh into the sea if he persisted in his resolution to return. He quieted them as much as lay in his power; but at last his great power was shaken and enfeebled, by imprisonment, by long sickness, by age, by the King's treachery, by disaster on disaster. He had still sufficient power to keep to his resolution and to force his men to some semblance of obedience, but in the old days no mutiny would have happened. Sulkily the men set sail for home, and Ralegh knew from the letters which Keymis had brought him from St. Thomas, that he was returning to disgrace and death.
From St. Christopher's, on this sad journey back, he forced himself to tell his wife the bad news of their son's death. He had no comfort for her. He was inured to grief. "God knows I never knewe what sorrow meant till now," he writes. "My braines are broken, and it is a torment for me to write, and especially of misery." And in a postscript, "I protest before the Majesty of God that as Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins died hart broken when they failed of their enterprize, I could willingly doe the like did I not contend against sorrow for your sake in hope to provide somewhat for you, and to comfort and relieve you."
The remainder of the voyage back was as disastrous as had been the outward voyage. Storms broke upon the ships and separated them. Some put in at Ireland; Captain Pennington, who had ridden back at the last moment to obtain money for supplies from Lady Ralegh, put in at Kinsale, and his ship was immediately seized. The Destiny arrived at Plymouth on June 21 alone; and at Plymouth Ralegh met his wife, and there he stayed until the second week of July.
In his last great enterprize he had failed, and he returned to give an account of his failure, and to face the ignominy which his failure entailed. He was resolved, however, to make one last effort to clear his name, and to reinstate his family in some semblance of prosperity. He was an old man now, and one who had been buffeted by misfortune, but the spirit of life was still strong in him.
CHAPTER XIX
DEATH
His reception—Arrest—Journey from Plymouth—Stukeley and Manourie—The final scene.