ntry off of bread and cheese. The family were used to Walter's
wanderings, and never waited for him. Now, in his holiday time, he was
free to go where he would.

[Illustration: WALTER RALEIGH AND THE FISHERMAN OF DEVON]

Mr. Raleigh of Fardell wanted all his sons brought up as the sons of a
gentleman should be, and so, although he was quite poor, he managed to
send Walter that autumn to the University of Oxford. Walter was only
fifteen, but boys went to college at that age in those days.

Oxford in 1567 was something like the Eton of to-day. There were not
many college buildings, and the students in cap and gown looked quite as
young as schoolboys do now. Oriel College was near the broad Christ
Church meadows that led down to the river, and from there Walter could
look across to the fields where the boys practiced their favorite sport
of archery, to the silver thread of the little river as it wound in and
out among the trees, and across it to the park where a herd of deer
roamed free.

The Oxford country, inland and not far from the centre of England, was
very different from his beloved Devonshire. Here there were many
gentlemen's parks, with well-kept lawns and gardens, lots of small
woods, and meadows broken now and again by little sparkling brooks.
Everything was very neat and beautifully cared for. But in Devon was the
wide sweep of the high moorlands, the herds of grazing ponies, the
glorious carpet of the heather, the salt smell of the sea.

Often the boy was homesick for that more barren country, and that shore
from which he loved to watch the sails, and very often he was tempted to
leave Oriel and go out to seek his fortune by himself. He did not give
in to the desire, however. He stayed on for three years, holding his
own in his studies, and winning the reputation of a good speaker.

Walter's chance for adventure came full soon. His mother's family, the
Champernouns, were related to the French Huguenot house of Montgomerie.
The Catholics and the Huguenots were at war in France, and Walter's
cousin Henry obtained permission of Queen Elizabeth to raise a troop of
a hundred gentlemen in England to fight with him in France. He asked
Raleigh at Oriel to join him, and the boy eagerly accepted. So he left
Oxford, and with a number of others of good family, many scarcely older
than himself, he crossed the Channel and entered France.

The moment was not a good one. The Huguenots had just lost the battle of
Moncon