108

XIII. CADIZ. THE ISLANDS VOYAGE (1596-1597) 125

XIV. FINAL FEUD WITH ESSEX (1597-1601) 141

XV. THE ZENITH (1601-1603) 155

XVI. COBHAM AND CECIL (1601-1603) 168

XVII. THE FALL (April-June, 1603) 180

XVIII. AWAITING TRIAL (July-November, 1603) 186

XIX. THE TRIAL (November 17) 207

XX. ITS JUSTICE AND EQUITY 222

XXI. REPRIEVE (December 10, 1603) 232

XXII. A PRISONER (1604-1612) 241

XXIII. SCIENCE AND LITERATURE (1604-1615) 265

XXIV. THE RELEASE (March, 1616) 287

XXV. PREPARING FOR GUIANA (1616-1617) 298

XXVI. THE EXPEDITION (May, 1617-June, 1618) 313

XXVII. RETURN TO THE TOWER (June-August, 1618) 331

XXVIII. A MORAL RACK (August 10-October 15) 343

XXIX. A SUBSTITUTE FOR A TRIAL (October 22, 1618) 359

XXX. RALEGH'S TRIUMPH (October 28-29, 1618) 371

XXXI. SPOILS AND PENALTIES 380

XXXII. CONTEMPORARY AND FINAL JUDGMENTS 394

INDEX 401

PREFACE

Students of Ralegh's career cannot complain of a dearth of materials.
For thirty-seven years he lived in the full glare of publicity. The
social and political literature of more than a generation abounds in
allusions to him. He appears and reappears continually in the
correspondence of Burleigh, Robert Cecil, Christopher Hatton, Essex,
Anthony Bacon, Henry Sidney, Richard Boyle, Ralph Winwood, Dudley
Carleton, George Carew, Henry Howard, and King James. His is a very
familiar name in the Calendars of Domestic State Papers. It holds its
place in the archives of Venice and Simancas. No family muniment room
can be explored without traces of him. Successive reports of the
Historical Manuscripts Commission testify to the vigilance with which
his doings were noted. No personage in two reigns was more a centre for
anecdotes and fables. They were eagerly imbibed, treasured, and
circulated alike by contemporary, or all but contemporary, statesmen and
wits, and by the feeblest scandal-mongers. A list comprising the names
of Francis Bacon, Sir John Harington, Sir Robert Naunton, Drummond of
Hawthornden, Thomas Fuller, Sir Anthony Welldon, Bishop Goo