They who have
idealized him as a downtrodden martyr will find the Ralegh portrayed by
his own pen in scores of letters to princes, statesmen, and nobles,
little to their taste. The real Ralegh will not cease to be honoured by
all whom the sight of indomitable courage and doggedness in the
accomplishment of a purpose moves. Only in his words and style could we
wish him to have been less supple and less meek. That we have to wish in
vain. He thought too highly both of the objects he meant to attain, and
of the strength of those who kept him from them, to be sparing of such
slight things as entreaties.

[Sidenote: _Reverence for Kingship._]

Life was the first article in his programme of ends to be pursued, or
losses to be redeemed. He prized life more than most. He had so much to
do with a life. Half his work still, as he reckoned, was incomplete. The
world was young, and abounded in possibilities. To save himself for
life and work was worth playing at servility. He could hardly see the
pettiness in a James, in his parasites, in his Ministers, for absorption
in their one essential quality, their ability, as holding headsman and
gaolers in a leash, to keep alive or kill, to bind or let loose. To this
age James is an awkward, ludicrous pedant. The spectacle of Ralegh's
veneration is exasperating. For Ralegh he was a symbol of sovereign
authority, a mysterious keeper of the scales of fate. He represented for
Ralegh a power above courts of law, and entitled to set right their
mistakes or misdeeds. Of his mere will he could free Ralegh from
persecution. For Ralegh he was a redresser of grievances; and he was
more. He impersonated potentiality to do as well as undo. The idea of
the opportunities embodied in an occupant of the throne was too
engrossing for Ralegh to weigh the character of the individual. He
imagined himself not merely pardoned, but trusted by the depositary of
boundless national resources, which he was conscious of an infinite
competence to employ. His admiration of the capabilities of the royal
Prerogative, if utilized as he perceived that they could be utilized,
embraced its titular tenant whoever he might be. He was dominated by an
intense sense of all he might accomplish for the indistinguishable
duality of himself and his country, if the King would. Sincerely he
could profess he had loved James ever since he beheld in him the heir of
the national crown.

On November 29, 1603, the priests, Watson and Clar