arded as a criminal, and he foresaw the end as it was to be. He
declared that his trust in the King had undone him, and that he should have
to die to please the State. He repented that he had not seized the
opportunity to escape, and began to form fresh plans. It has been said that
at Plymouth his fortitude deserted him. Mr. Gardiner has suggested the very
improbable motive for his aversion from a return to London, that he feared
he might be torn in pieces by the mob. It was not courage, but patience,
which failed. He could not bear the thought of losing the power to strike
another blow for the fulfilment of his darling ambition.

[Sidenote: _Manourie._]

Stukely closed his sales, and set off, we are told, on July 25, though
more probably the journey began some days earlier. The company consisted
of himself, Ralegh, and Lady Ralegh, with their servants, King, and a
Frenchman, Manourie, who is said to have brought Stukely his regular
warrant. Manourie, who had been long settled in Devonshire, has been
variously described as a physician and as a quack. Two centuries and a
half ago the distinction between charlatans and experimentalists was not
clearly marked in medical science. Ralegh seems to have suspected that
he was a spy, but to have believed in his skill. The man may not have
been the medical impostor popular resentment believed him. Undoubtedly
he was needy and greedy, and a perfidious rogue. From the first he laid
traps. He reported to Stukely, or invented, an ejaculation by Ralegh, on
hearing of the orders for London: 'God's wounds! Is it possible that my
fortune should thus return upon me again?' He told how Ralegh cried as
they rode by Sherborne Park: 'All this was mine, and it was taken from
me unjustly.' Nothing could be more true.

[Sidenote: _The Counterfeit Disease._]

They had slept on the night of July 26 at the house of old Mr. Parham,
who lived, with his son, Sir Edward Parham, close to Sherborne. Next
day, July 27, they journeyed to Salisbury by Wilton. On the hill beyond
Wilton, Ralegh, as he walked down it with Manourie, asked him to prepare
an emetic: 'It will be good,' Manourie asserted that he said, 'to
evacuate bad humours; and by its means I shall gain time to work my
friends and order my affairs; perhaps even to pacify his Majesty.' The
summer Progress was proceeding. Ralegh knew that, in pursuance of its
programme, the King would stay at Salisbury. That night at Salisbury he
turned dizzy.