vantage, and burnt the town. In this action
Raleigh's eldest son was killed. The Spaniards still occupied the
passes to the mine, and after an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge
them, Keymis abandoned the enterprise and returned to the ships.
Raleigh's correspondence expresses in affecting terms his grief and
indignation at this double misfortune: the loss of a brave and
promising son, and the destruction of the hopes which he had founded
on this long-cherished adventure. On his return to England, he found
himself marked out for a victim to appease the resentment of the
Spanish Court, to which he had long been an object of fear and hatred.

His conduct abroad had already been closely scrutinized, in the hope
of finding some act of piracy, or unauthorized aggression against
Spain, for which he might be brought to trial. Both these hopes
failing, and his death, in compliment to Spain, being resolved on, it
was determined to carry into effect the sentence passed fifteen years
before, from which he had never been legally released; and a warrant
was accordingly issued to the judges, requiring them to order
execution. He insisted on the nature of his late commission, and on
that plea being overruled, submitted with his usual calmness and
dignity. The execution, with indecent haste, was ordered to take place
on the following morning. In this last stage of life, his greatness of
mind shone with even more than its usual lustre. Calm, and fearless
without bravado, his behavior and speech expressed the piety and
resignation of a Christian, with the habitual coolness of one who has
braved death too often to shrink at its approach. His farewell to his
faithful wife was manly, tender, and most affecting. The accounts of
his deportment on the scaffold effectually refute the charges of
irreligion and atheism, which some writers have brought against him,
unless we make up our minds to believe him an accomplished hypocrite.
He spoke at considerable length, and his dying words have been
faithfully reported. They contain a denial of all the serious offences
laid to his charge, and express his forgiveness of those even who had
betrayed him under the mask of friendship. After delivering this
address, and spending some time in prayer, he laid his head on the
block, and breathing a short private prayer, gave the signal to the
executioner. Not being immediately obeyed, he partially raised his
head, and said, "What dost thou fear? Strike, man!" an