y which is no less the wonder of the character than it is of
the career. The Ralegh who has stamped himself upon English history, who
has fascinated English imagination, is not so much the favourite of
Elizabeth, the soldier and sailor; it is the baited prey of Coke and
Popham, the browbeaten convict of Winchester, the attainted prisoner of
the Tower. Against the Court of James and its obsequious lawyers he was
struggling for bare life, for no sublime cause, for no impersonal ideal.
Yet so high was his spirit, and his bearing so undaunted, that he has
ever appeared to subsequent generations a martyr on the altar of English
liberties.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE TRIAL (November 17).

[Sidenote: _The Indictment._]

On September 21 Ralegh had been indicted at Staines for having, with
Cobham and Brooke, compassed in the Parish of St. Martin in the Fields
to deprive the King of his crown, to alter the true religion, and to
levy war. The indictment alleged that Cobham had discoursed with him on
the means of raising Arabella Stuart to the crown; that Cobham had
treated with Arenberg for 600,000 crowns from the King of Spain, and had
meant to go to Spain in quest of support for Arabella. It alleged that
Ralegh and Cobham had agreed Arabella should by letter promise the
Archduke of Austria, the King of Spain, and the Duke of Savoy, to
maintain a firm truce with Spain, to tolerate Papistry, and be guided by
the three princes in her marriage. It alleged the publication and
delivery by Ralegh to Cobham of a book traitorously devised against the
King's title to the crown. Finally, it alleged that Cobham had agreed,
when he should have received the money from Arenberg, to deliver eight
or ten thousand crowns to Ralegh to enable him the better to effect the
intended treasons. Jurors were summoned in September for the trial of
this indictment. But for some reason the hearing was deferred till
November.

[Sidenote: _Mob Judgments._]

The plague raging in London and the neighbourhood may account for the
delay. Pym relates in his _Diary_ that it killed 2000 a week. The Tower
was reported in September, 1603, to be infected. The King's Bench kept
the next term at Winchester. So to Winchester their respective
custodians conveyed Brooke, Sir Griffin Markham, Sir Edward Parham, who
finally was acquitted, Brooksby, Copley, Watson, Clarke, Cobham, and
Grey. They were escorted by under-wardens of the Tower, the Keeper of
the Westminster Ga