hand, often stole,
and when superior in power, forced a trade with the inhabitants, and
resisted, nay, sometimes plundered, the Spanish governors. Violences of
this nature, which had been carried to a great height on both sides, it
was agreed to bury in total oblivion; because of the difficulty which
was found in remedying them upon any fixed principles.

But as there appeared a great difference between private adventurers
in single ships, and a fleet acting under a royal commission, Raleigh's
companions thought it safest to return immediately to England, and
carry him along with them to answer for his conduct. It appears that
he employed many artifices, first to engage them to attack the Spanish
settlements, and, failing of that, to make his escape into France: but,
all these proving unsuccessful, he was delivered into the king's hands,
and strictly examined, as well as his fellow-adventurers, before
the privy council. The council, upon inquiry, found no difficulty
in pronouncing, that the former suspicions, with regard to Raleigh's
intentions, had been well grounded; that he had abused the king in the
representations which he had made of his projected adventure; that,
contrary to his instructions, he had acted in an offensive and hostile
manner against his majesty's allies; and that he had wilfully burned
and destroyed a town belonging to the king of Spain. He might have been
tried either by common law, for this act of violence and piracy; or by
martial law, for breach of orders: but it was an established principle
among lawyers,[*] that, as he lay under an actual attainder for high
treason, he could not be brought to a new trial for any other crime.
To satisfy, therefore the court of Spain, which raised the loudest
complaints against him, the king made use of that power which he had
purposely reserved in his own hands, and signed the warrant for his
execution upon his former sentence.[**] [54]

* See this matter discussed in Bacon's Letters published by
Dr Birch, p. 181.

** See note BBB, at the end of the volume.

Raleigh, finding his fate inevitable, collected all his courage and
though he had formerly made use of many mean artifices, such as feigning
madness, sickness, and a variety of diseases, in order to protract his
examination, and procure his escape, he now resolved to act his part
with bravery and resolution, "'Tis a sharp remedy," he said, "but a sure
one for all ills," when he felt the