rness from Cecil, who cautiously said that 'but for his fault,' he
was still Raleigh's friend. Posterity has laughed at one piece of the
Attorney's evidence:

There is one Dyer, a pilot, that being in Lisbon met with a
Portugal gentleman, which asked him if the King of England was
crowned yet. To whom he answered, 'I think not yet, but he shall
be shortly.' 'Nay,' said the Portugal, 'that shall he never be,
for his throat will be cut by Don Raleigh and Don Cobham before
he be crowned.'

A prosecution that calls for evidence such as this has simply broken
down. The whole report of the trial is so puerile, that it can only be
understood by bearing in mind that, as Mr. Gardiner says, the Government
were in possession of a good deal of evidence which they could not
produce in court. The King wished to spare Arabella, and to accept
Aremberg's protestations with the courtesy due to an ambassador. It was
therefore impossible to bring forward a letter which Cecil possessed
from Cobham to Arabella, and two from Aremberg to Cobham. The difficulty
was not to prove Cobham's guilt, however, but to connect Raleigh closely
enough with Cobham, and this Coke went on labouring to do. At last he
laid a trap for Raleigh. He induced him to argue on the subject, and
then Coke triumphantly drew from his pocket a long letter Cobham had
written to the commissioners the day before, a letter in which Cobham
disclosed all the secret correspondence Raleigh had had with him since
his imprisonment, and even the picturesque story of the letter that was
bound round the apple and thrown into Cobham's window in the Tower.

At the production of this document, Sir Walter Raleigh fairly lost his
self-possession. He had no idea that any of these facts were in the
hands of the Government. His bewilderment and dejection soon, however,
left him sufficiently for him to recollect the other letter of Cobham's
which he possessed. He drew it from his pocket, and, Cobham's writing
being very bad, he could not, from his agitation, read it; Coke desired
that it should not be produced, but Cecil interposed once more, and
volunteered to read it aloud. This letter was Raleigh's last effort. He
said, when Cecil had finished, 'Now, my masters, you have heard both.
That showed against me is but a voluntary confession. This is under
oath, and the deepest protestations a Christian man can make. Therefore
believe which of these hath more force.' The ju