nfiscate by virtue of that sentence, and King James
wanted the land--filched thus from one who was England's pride--to
bestow it upon one of those golden calves of his who were England's
shame.

"I maun hae the land for Carr. I maun hae it," was his brazen and
peevish answer to an appeal against the confiscation.

For thirteen years Sir Walter lay in the Tower, under that sentence of
death passed in 1603, enjoying after a season a certain liberty, visited
there by his dear lady and his friends, among whom was Henry, Prince of
Wales, who did not hesitate to publish that no man but his father--whom
he detested--would keep such a bird in a cage. He beguiled the time in
literary and scientific pursuits, distilling his essences and writing
that stupendous work of his, "The History of the World." Thus old age
crept upon him; but far from quenching the fires of enterprise within
his adventurer's soul, it brought a restlessness that urged him at last
to make a bid for liberty. Despairing of winning it from the clemency of
James, he applied his wits to extracting it from the King's cupidity.

Throughout his life, since the day when first he had brought himself to
the notice of a Queen by making of his cloak a carpet for her feet, he
had retained side by side with the dignity of the sage and the
greatness of the hero, the craft and opportunism of the adventurer. His
opportunity now was the straitened condition of the royal treasury, a
hint of which had been let fall by Winwood the Secretary of State. He
announced at once that he knew of a gold mine in Guiana, the El Dorado
of the Spaniards.

On his return from a voyage to Guiana in 1595, he had written of it
thus:

"There the common soldier shall fight for gold instead of pence, pay
himself with plates half a foot broad, whereas he breaks his bones in
other wars for provant and penury Those commanders and chieftains that
shoot at honour and abundance shall find here more rich and beautiful
cities, more temples adorned with golden images, more sepulchres filled
with treasure than either Cortez found in Mexico or Pizarro in Peru."

Winwood now reminded him that as a consequence many expeditions had gone
out, but failed to discover any of these things.

"That," said Ralegh, "is because those adventurers were ignorant alike
of the country and of the art of conciliating its inhabitants. Were I
permitted to go, I would make Guiana to England what Peru has been to
Spain."

Tha