less prejudiced had been formed of them; and immediately after the sentence was pronounced, the sheriff brought him a reprieve from the queen. Udall after this was pestered with strict forms of submission, and the king of Scots" wrote to Queen Elizabeth in behalf of him and other learned nonconformists; but he died sometime afterward in prison, at the very moment when his pardon was procured.❜

Ralegh soon after this, gave a proof of his esteem for the memory of his friend Sir Richard Grenville, by the elaborate defence which he wrote of that brave commander's conduct in Lord Thomas How1591. ard's expedition of 1591, for intercepting the Spanish plate-fleet at the Azores, in which Sir Richard lost his life, and his ship, the Revenge, had been taken

Udall was the first man king James asked for when he came to England, and being told he was dead, he replied, by my saul then the greatest scholar in Europe's dead. Forde's Familiar Letters, p. 135.

* He was not brought to execution as Fuller (Church Hist. ix, 8, 31.) implies, though in contradiction to what he had already written, (ix, 8, 4.) See Forde as above.

S

s See A new Discovery of old Pontifical practices, 4to, 1643, in Pref. This pamphlet is Udall's own account of the prosecution, and probably the same account which is reprinted in the State Trials. See also Birch's Memoirs Elizab. I, 62.

A Report of the truth of the fight about the isles of Azores this last summer, betwixt the Revenge, one of her Majesty's ships, commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, and an armada of the king of Spain, 4, 1591, reprinted in Hakluyt's Voyages, fol. 1599, Vol. II, Part ii, p. 169.

by the enemy before she sunk. The Spaniards act so conspicuous a part in Ralegh's story, that it may not be uninteresting to the reader to peruse the concluding reflections made by Sir Walter in this piece, upon a people to whom he afterward proved so great an enemy, and on whom the terror of his name was so deeply impressed.

• For matter of religion, it would require a particular volume, if I should set down how irreligiously they cover their greedy and ambitious pretences, with that veil of piety. But sure I am, that there is no kingdom or commonwealth in all Europe, but if they be reformed, they then invade it for religionsake; if it be, as they term catholic, they pretend title, as if the kings of Castile were the natural heirs of all the world; and so between both, no kingdom is unsought. Where they dare not with their own forces to invade, they basely entertain the traitors and vagabonds of all nations; seeking by those and by their runnagate Jesuits to win parts; and have by that mean ruined many noble houses, and others in this land, and have extinguished both their lives and families. What good, honour, or fortune, ever man yet by them achieved, is yet unheard of, or unwritten. And if our English papists do but look into Portugal, against which they have no pretence of religion, how the nobility are put to death, imprisoned, their rich men made a prey, and all sorts of people captived, they shall find that the obedience

even of the Turk is easy, and a liberty, in respect of the slavery and tyranny of Spain. What have they done in Sicily, in Naples, Milan, and in the Low countries? Who hath there been spared for religion at all? And it cometh to my remembrance of a certain burgher of Antwerp, whose house being entered by a company of Spanish soldiers, when they first sacked the city, he besought them to spare him and his goods, being a good catholic, and one of their own party and faction. The Spaniards answered, that they knew him to be of a good conscience for himself, but his money, plate, jewels, and goods were all heretical; and therefore good prize. So they abused and tormented the foolish Fleming, who hoped that an Agnus Dei had been a sufficient target against all force of that holy and charitable nation.

• Neither have they at any time, as they protest, invaded the kingdoms of the Indies and Peru, and elsewhere, but only led thereunto rather to reduce the people to Christianity, than for either gold or empire. Whereas, in one only island, called Hispaniola, they have wasted three million of the natural people, beside many millions else in other places of the Indies; a poor and harmless people, created of God, and might have been won to his knowledge, as many of them were, and almost as many as ever were persuaded thereunto. The story whereof is at large written, by a bishop of their own nation called Bartholomew de las Casas, and translated into English,

and many other languages, intituled, The Spanish Cruelties. Who would therefore repose trust in such a nation of ravenous strangers, and especially in those Spaniards, who more greedily thirst after English blood, than after the lives of any other people of Europe, for the many overthrows and dishonours they have received at our hands; whose weakness we have discovered to the world, and whose forces at home, abroad, in Europe, in India, by sea and land, we have, even with handfuls of men and ships, overthrown and' dishonoured.

'Let not, therefore, any Englishman, of what religion soever, have other opinion of the Spaniard, but that those whom he seeketh to win of our nation, he esteemeth base and traiterous, unworthy persons, or unconstant fools; and that he useth his pretence of religion for no other purpose but to bewitch us from the obedience of our natural prince; thereby hoping in time to bring us to slavery and subjection, and then none shall be unto them so odious and disdained as the traitors themselves, who have sold their country to a stranger, and forsaken their faith and obedience, contrary to nature and religion; and contrary to that human and general honour, not only of Christians, but of heathen and irreligious nations, who have alway sustained what labour soever, and embraced even death itself, for their country, prince, or commonwealth. To conclude, it hath ever to this day pleased God to prosper and defend her Majesty, to break the purposes

of malicious enemies, of forsworn traitors, and of unjust practices and invasions. She hath ever been honoured of the worthiest kings, served by faithful subjects, and shall, by the favour of God, resist, repel, and confound, all whatsoever attempts against her sacred person or kingdom. In the mean time, let the Spaniard and traitor vaunt of their success, and we her true and obedient vassals, guided by the shining light of her virtues, shall alway love her, serve her, and obey her, to the end of our lives,'

Having now formed a design against the Spaniards in the West Indies, particularly at Panama, with a view of meeting the Plate-fleet, Sir Walter was not only himself at great expence in fitting out a maritime force, but also employed all his interest to engage as many of his friends as he could, and others, in the adventure. The plan he drew appeared so feasible to her Majesty, that, the co-adventurers having provided no less than thirteen sail of wellequipped ships, she added two men of war, the Garland and the Foresight, to the number, gave Sir Walter a commission as general of the fleet, and Sir John Burgh the post of lieutenant-general. A note in the hand-writing of Sir Walter relative to this expedition, was found among the Burleigh papers, and is here copied.