penury had been all. Early in 1604 he
wrote that, if Sherborne could be assured, he should take his loss for a
gain, nothing having been lost that could have bettered his family, 'but
the lease of the wines, which was desperate before his troubles.' He did
not wish for his wife and son, 'God knows, the least proportion of
plenty, having forgotten that happiness which found too much too
little.' His one desire was that they should be able to eat their own
bread. The interruption of his career was the real and unappeasable
wrong. All his virtues made him struggle indomitably against that. He
was supported in the contest by the vice itself, if it were a vice, of
his abounding egotism. His incapacity for believing that powers like his
could be wasted by the State, buoyed him up against the direst
persecutions. He was unable at heart, whatever his groanings, to regard
them as more than passing checks in a game in which he had chanced upon
losing cards. He fought for liberty more stubbornly than for his
property, that he might resume his work in the world. He complained in
January, 1604, that Papists who plotted to surprise the King's person
had been liberated, while Cecil's poor, ancient, and true friend was
left to perish 'here where health wears away.' Cecil had written kind
but cautious lines in another hand, of which Ralegh 'knew the phrase.'
They had raised his hopes. Cecil dashed them by declaring to Lady Ralegh
early in 1604 that, 'for a pardon, it could not yet be done.' Ralegh did
not therefore leave off seeking it. For some time he could not believe
that his imprisonment was to be more than transitory. His efforts were
directed to the negotiation of terms to which he might consent for the
abridgment of the liberty he deemed his right. He did not ask to be
'about London--which God cast my soul into hell if I desire.' He would
be content to be confined within the Hundred of Sherborne. If he could
not be allowed so much, he was ready to live in Holland. There he
thought he might obtain some employment connected with the Indies. Else
he petitioned to 'be appointed to any bishop, or other gentleman, or
nobleman, or that your Lordship would let me keep but a park of
yours--which I would buy from someone that hath it--I will never break
the order which you shall please to undertake for me.'

[Sidenote: _At the Fleet Prison._]

[Sidenote: _His Ailments._]

He fretted in mind; and he was ill in body. For several years hi