ish mission. He gathered that Ralegh
was discontented with James, and with the Court policy. Ralegh expressed
his desire for more talk at a less inconvenient time and place.
Richelieu had recently described him to Marshal Concini as 'grand
marinier et mauvais capitaine'; but he was far from discouraging his
overtures. A subsequent interview was held, and described in a despatch
several weeks after the meeting. If the Count's memory did not, as Sir
Robert Schomburgk thinks, deceive him, Ralegh said: 'Seeing myself so
badly and tyrannically treated by my own Sovereign, I have made up my
mind, if God send me good success, to leave my country, and to make to
the King your master the first offer of what shall fall under my power.'
Doubtless there was just so much truth in the Count's report that a
profusion of compliments passed. Des Marets would express his
astonishment at the treatment Ralegh had experienced, and regret that
France had not enjoyed the happiness of possessing such a hero, and the
opportunity of rewarding him properly. Ralegh would respond in the same
key, and assure his French sympathiser that, if an occasion presented
itself, he was well inclined to serve the noblest Court in Europe. He is
not to be held responsible for the positive summary the Frenchman
dressed up of the conversation weeks after it had passed to show
Ralegh's effusiveness and his own caution. Des Marets himself did not at
the time treat the talk seriously. He said he replied that Ralegh could
betake himself to no quarter in which he would receive more of courtesy
or friendship. 'I thought it well,' wrote des Marets, 'to give him good
words, although I do not anticipate that his voyage will have much
fruit.'

[Sidenote: _Understanding with France._]

Before Ralegh left English waters he had further negotiations with
France. A Frenchman, Captain Faige, was his companion on the voyage,
which commenced March 28, 1617, from the Thames to Plymouth. By this man
he sent in May a letter to a M. de Bisseaux, a French Councillor of
State. He wrote that he had commissioned Faige to take ships to points
in the Indies agreed on between them. The intention was to meet Ralegh
at the mine which he counted upon working. Faige, he said, could explain
his plan. He asked for a patent, promised, he said, by Admiral de
Montmorency, which would empower him to enter a French port, 'avec tous
les ports, navires, equipages, et biens, par lui traites ou conquis.'