ter. Elizabeth vouched for his claim to
Leicester's friendliness. She bade Walsingham declare to Leicester, upon
her honour, that the gentleman had done good offices for him in the time
of her displeasure.

[Sidenote: _The Earl of Oxford._]

He could be useful to the greatest; whether only great, or great and
deserving too. He had been always solicitous of Burleigh's goodwill. As
a rival at Court of Leicester, he had it. Burleigh loved no Court
favourites. 'Seek not to be Essex; shun to be Ralegh,' was his warning
to his son. Robert Cecil, awkward and deformed, was in no danger.
Favourites represented a side of the Queen's nature which continually
troubled the wise Minister. Their accomplishments were not his. They
were costly. While he cannot have failed to perceive something admirable
in Ralegh, he would not value the majority of his merits. The poetry and
imaginativeness he despised. Still he always preserved amicable
relations. He condescended to use Ralegh's personal influence as well as
Hatton's. In the spring of 1583 he solicited the mediation of both those
favourites with the Queen for his son-in-law, Edward Vere, Earl of
Oxford. Oxford was in disgrace on the charge, not very heavy in those
days as against an Earl, of having slain Long Tom, a retainer of Mr.
Knyvett's. The Queen had rejected Burleigh's own intercession. She
appears to have granted forgiveness at Ralegh's suit. Oxford's arrogance
had provoked Sir Philip Sidney. It had not spared Ralegh, who, Aubrey
says, had been 'a second with him in a duel.' Ralegh pretended no
kindliness for the Earl; he avowed to Burleigh that as a mediator he
acted for the Minister's sake alone: 'I am content to lay the serpent
before the fire, as much as in me lieth, that, having recovered
strength, myself may be more in danger of his poison and sting.'
Eighteen years after, not that he cared, he found the venom was not
exhausted.

[Sidenote: _His Unpopularity._]

[Sidenote: _An Excess of Capability._]

Ralegh did not hoard or keep to himself the wealth and power conferred
upon him. His was an age of patronage. Other successful courtiers had,
like him, their trains of dependants. He was at least as bountiful as
any and as sympathetic. His followers believed in and worshipped him.
Posterity he has captivated. Yet throughout his active career he aroused
bitter hatred, unless in the West, and in his own home circle. The fact
requires to be noted for the purpose of apprai