e placed on any
of his assertions. But as the King was afraid of Raleigh as much as
the secretary hated him, this vague charge, unsupported by other
evidence, was made sufficient to commit him to the Tower; and, after
being plied with private examinations, in which nothing criminal could
be elicited, he was brought to trial, November 17, 1603. For an
account of that memorable scene we shall refer to Mr. Jardine's
"Criminal Trials," Vol. I. It is reported to have been said by one of
the judges who presided over it, on his death-bed, that "the justice
of England had never been so degraded and injured as by the
condemnation of Sir Walter Raleigh." The behavior of the victim
himself was the object of universal admiration, for the tempered
mixture of patience and noble spirit with which he bore the oppressive
measure dealt to him. He had before been unpopular; but it was
recorded by an eye-witness that "he behaved himself so worthily, so
wisely, and so temperately, that in half a day the mind of all the
company was changed from the extremest hate to the extremest pity."

The sentence of death thus unfairly and disgracefully obtained was not
immediately carried into execution. James was not satisfied with the
evidence adduced on the trial; and believing at the same time that
Raleigh had been plotting against him, he set his royal wit to dive
into the mystery. Of the singular scene which the British Solomon
devised it is not necessary to speak, since Raleigh was not an actor
in it. But as no more evidence could be obtained against him, even by
the King's sagacity, he was reprieved, and remanded to the Tower,
where the next twelve years of his life were spent in confinement.
Fortunately, he had never ceased to cultivate literature with a zeal
not often found in the soldier and politician, and he now beguiled the
tedium of his lot by an entire devotion to those studies which before
had only served to diversify his more active and engrossing pursuits.
Of his poetical talents we have already made short mention; to the end
of life he continued the practice of pouring out his mind in verse,
and there are several well-known and beautiful pieces expressive of
his feelings in prison, and in the anticipation of immediate death;
especially "The Lie," and the beautiful little poem called "The
Pilgrimage." He also possessed a strong turn for mathematics, and
studied them with much success in the society and under the guidance
of his frien