edge of the axe by which he was to
be beheaded.[*] His harangue to the people was calm and eloquent; and he
endeavored to revenge himself, and to load his enemies with the public
hatred, by strong asseverations of facts, which, to say the least, may
be esteemed very doubtful.[**] With the utmost indifference he laid his
head upon the block, and received the fatal blow; and in his death there
appeared the same great, but ill-regulated mind, which, during his life,
had displayed itself in all his conduct and behavior.

* Franklyn, p. 32.

** He asserted, in the most solemn manner, that he had
nowise contributed to Essex's death: but the last letter in
Murden's Collection contains the strongest proof of the
contrary.

No measure of James's reign was attended with more public
dissatisfaction than the punishment of Sir Walter Raleigh. To execute a
sentence which was originally so hard, which had been so long suspended,
and which seemed to have been tacitly pardoned, by conferring on him
a new trust and commission, was deemed an instance of cruelty and
injustice. To sacrifice to a concealed enemy of England the life of the
only man in the nation who had a high reputation for valor and military
experience, was regarded as meanness and indiscretion; and the intimate
connections which the king was now entering into with Spain, being
universally distasteful, rendered this proof of his complaisance still
more invidious and unpopular.

James had entertained an opinion, which was peculiar to himself, and
which had been adopted by none of his predecessors, that any alliance
below that of a great king was unworthy of a prince of Wales; and he
never would allow any princess, but a daughter of France or Spain, to
be mentioned as a match for his son.[*] This instance of pride, which
really implies meanness, as if he could receive honor from any alliance,
was so well known, that Spain had founded on it the hopes of governing,
in the most important transactions, this monarch, so little celebrated
for politics or prudence. During the life of Henry, the king of Spain
had dropped some hints of bestowing on that prince his eldest daughter,
whom he afterwards disposed of in marriage to the young king of France,
Lewis XIII. At that time, the views of the Spaniards were to engage
James into a neutrality with regard to the succession of Cleves, which
was disputed between the Protestant and Popish line;[**] but the bait