think fit. Eventually she was subjected to the supervision of
Wilson. No crime was imputed to her. The object of the lawless outrage
was the interception of admissions in the letters husband and wife were
encouraged to write. All were submitted to the King's prying though lazy
eyes. Naunton remarked on one occasion to Wilson: 'I forbear to send
your long letter to the King, who would not read over the Lady's, being
glutted and cloyed with business.' The correspondence told little any of
the conspirators cared to learn. The letters breathed a trust and
affection James never inspired. None of the State secrets he expected to
detect were revealed in such a note as from Ralegh in September: 'I am
sick and weak. My swollen side keeps me in perpetual pain and unrest;'
or in her reply: 'I am sorry to hear amongst many discomforts that your
health is so ill. 'Tis merely sorrow and grief. I hope your health and
comforts will mend, and mend us for God.'

[Sidenote: _Mr. Gardiner's Case against Ralegh._]

[Sidenote: _The King's good Faith._]

By this time the Government recognised that it had done all in its power
for the completion of its case against Ralegh. Students of the
proceedings will think the same. They have cause to be grateful to Mr.
Gardiner for marshalling the medley in his essay under that title in the
_Fortnightly Review_. With the fullest desire to be impartial, he sums
up strongly against the defendant; and his skill and patience in the
collection of evidence are such as to ensure that he has neglected
nothing available for a decisive condemnation. According to him, Ralegh
was guilty of a flagrant breach of the conditions on which his
expedition was authorized. He had pledged his own faith and that of his
friends and companions that he could reach and work his Mine in Guiana
without attacking resident Spaniards, or trespassing on lands in Spanish
occupation. James, it is said, was not inconsistent with his own
principles in sanctioning an enterprise thus qualified. The King's
doctrine, frankly stated by Mr. Gardiner, was that nothing less than
occupancy carried the right to territorial dominion; and it had been
declared to him that the locality of the Mine was not occupied by
Spaniards. He was sceptical of the existence of the Mine, and he was
mistrustful of Ralegh's disposition to comply with the compact. The
national eagerness, however, for the adventure, and the confidence of
Ralegh's well-wishers, overpowe