g savages, a Papist among
Papists, a despot among slaves; a thousand easy maidens deeming it honor
to serve his pleasure, a thousand wild ruffians deeming it piety to
fulfil his revenge: and let him that is without sin among us cast the
first stone."

"Ay," went on Raleigh to himself, as the conversation dropped. "What
hadst thou been, Raleigh, hadst thou been that Desmond whose lands thou
now desirest? What wilt thou be when thou hast them? Will thy children
sink downwards, as these noble barons sank? Will the genius of tyranny
and falsehood find soil within thy heart to grow and ripen fruit? What
guarantee hast thou for doing better here than those who went before
thee? And yet, cannot I do justice and love mercy? Can I not establish
plantations, build and sow, and make the desert valleys laugh with corn?
Shall I not have my Spenser with me, to fill me with all noble thoughts,
and raise my soul to his heroic pitch? Is not this true knight-errantry,
to redeem to peace and use, and to the glory of that glorious queen whom
God has given to me, a generous soil and a more generous race? Trustful
and tenderhearted they are--none more; and if they be fickle and
passionate, will not that very softness of temper, which makes them so
easily led to evil, make them as easy to be led towards good? Yes--here,
away from courts, among a people who should bless me as their benefactor
and deliverer--what golden days might be mine! And yet--is this but
another angel's mask from that same cunning fiend ambition's stage? And
will my house be indeed the house of God, the foundations of which are
loyalty, and its bulwarks righteousness, and not the house of fame,
whose walls are of the soap-bubble, and its floor a sea of glass mingled
with fire? I would be good and great--When will the day come when I
shall be content to be good, and yet not great, like this same simple
Leigh, toiling on by my side to do his duty, with no more thought for
the morrow than the birds of God? Greatness? I have tasted that cup
within the last twelve months; do I not know that it is sweet in the
mouth, but bitter in the belly? Greatness? And was not Essex great, and
John of Austria great, and Desmond great, whose race, but three
short years ago, had stood for ages higher than I shall ever hope to
climb--castles, and lands, and slaves by thousands, and five hundred
gentlemen of his name, who had vowed to forswear God before they
forswore him and well have they kep