he Crown worked their hardest to discover that he was a criminal.
First on August 17, and twice afterwards, he was examined upon
interrogatories by a committee of the Privy Council, consisting of Lord
Chancellor Bacon, Archbishop Abbot, Lord Worcester, Coke, since
November, 1616, no longer Chief Justice, Caesar, and Naunton. The
examinations were not directed in a way either to do justice to the
prisoner, or to elicit the truth, so far as can be discovered from the
records of them. Those among the Lords Commissioners who desired
something more than merely to extricate their master from a diplomatic
difficulty, were incapacitated by an invincible prejudice. All started
by taking for granted that the prisoner never intended to search for the
Mine, that none existed, and that his single purpose since he prepared
for his expedition was to attack piratically the Spanish colonies and
commerce. Mr. Gardiner, who is one of his severest critics, acknowledges
that they blundered and failed, because they were not content to convict
him of having cared simply to find the Mine, and been reckless of the
means.

James and his Ministers could convince themselves of the expediency and
moral propriety of slaying a man capable, as they believed, of schemes,
however qualified, for the capture of the Spanish treasure ships. They
saw the difficulty of proving to the country the capital criminality of
the avowal of a project never acted upon. They had hoped they might
fabricate supplementary treasonable matter out of the communications
between Ralegh and the French Agency. After a long competition between a
French and a Spanish family compact, the Spanish faction at Court, which
was James's own, was absolutely predominant. The Government did not
shrink from offending French susceptibilities. In September it arrested
and repeatedly examined de Novion, whose diplomatic character was not
very definitive. Le Clerc, the resident Agent, was himself summoned
before the Council at Hampton Court, and confronted with de Novion. He
stood upon his privilege, and refused to answer. The Council solemnly
rebuked him for his secret conferences with, and offers of means of
escape to, an English subject attainted of high treason, and since
'detected in other heinous crimes.' He was informed he had forfeited, by
the law of nations, his immunities, and was required to confine himself
to his house. The French Government was wrathful; but it had a weak
case. Its c