1592, to Sir Robert Cecil. The first of them ap pears to have been written with a view that it should be shewn to the queen, and the others acquaint us with the treatment his property in the sister-kingdom experienced in consequence of his disgrace; a circumstance of which the utmost use was too likely to be made by his enemies and rivals in power. SIR WALTER RALEGH TO SIR ROBERT CECIL. • SIR,-I pray be a mean to her Majesty for the signing of the bills for the guards' coats, which are to be made now for the progress, and which the clerk of the check hath importuned me to write for. My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the queen goes away so far off, whom I have followed so many years with so great love and desire in so many journeys, and am now left behind her in a dark prison, all alone. While she was yet near at hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three days, my sorrows were the less, but even now my heart is cast into the depth of all misery. I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks like a nymph, sometime sitting in the shade like a goddess, sometime singing like an angel, sometime playing like Orpheus. Behold the sorrow of this world! once amiss hath bereaved me of all. O glory, that only shineth in misfortune! what is become of thy assurance? All wounds have scars but that of fantasy; all affections their relenting but that of woman-kind. Who is the judge of friendship but adversity, or when is grace witnessed but in offences? There were no divinity but by reason of compassion, for revenges are brutish and mortal. All those times past, the loves, the sighs, the sorrows, the desires, can they not weigh down one frail misfortune? Cannot one drop of gall be hidden in so great heaps of sweetness? I may then conclude, spes et fortuna valete. She is gone, in whom I trusted, and of me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any respect of that that was. Do with me now, therefore, what you list. I am more weary of life than they are desirous I should perish; which, if it had been for her, as it is by her, I had been too happily born. Yours, not worthy any name or title, SIR,-I wrote unto your father how I am dealt withal by the deputy, to whom my disgraces have been highly commended. He supposed a debt of £400 to the queen, for rent, and sent order to the sheriff to take away all the cattle my tenants had, and sell them the next day, unless the money were paid the same day. All Munster hath scarce so much money in it, and the debt was, indeed, but fifty marks, which was paid; and it was the first and only rent that hath yet been paid by any undertaker. But the sheriff did as he commanded, and took away five hundred milch-kine from the poor people; some had but two, and some three, to relieve their poor wives and children, and in a strange country, newly set down to build and plant. He hath forcibly thrust me out of possession of a castle, because it is in law between me and his cousin, Winckfeld, and will not hear my attornies speak. He hath admitted a ward, and given it his man, of a castle which is the queen's, and hath been by me new built, and planted with English these five years; and to profit his man with a wardship, loseth her Majesty's inheritance, and would plant the cousin of a rebel in the place of Englishmen, the castle standing in the most dangerous place of all Munster. Beside, there is a band of soldiers, which a base fellow, Ododall, hath in Yoholl, which doth cost the queen £1,200 a-year, and hath not ten good men in it; but our poorest people muster and serve him for three pence a-day, and the rest of his soldiers do nothing but spoil the country, and drive away our best tenants. If the queen be over-rich, it may be maintained; but I will, at three days warning, raise her a better band, and arm it better tenfold, and better men, whensoever she shall need it. And in the meantime, it may either be employed in the north, or discharged; for there is in Munster beside, a band of horse, and another of foot, which is more than needeth. In this, if you please to move it, you may save her Majesty so much in her coffers. For the rest I will send my man to attend you, although I care not either for life or lands; but it will be no small weakening to the queen in those parts, and no small comfort to the ill-affected Irish, to have the English inhabitants driven out of the country; which are yet strong enough to master the rest without her charge. Yours, to do 6 To my honourable friend, Sir R. Cecil, Kt. of her Majesty's most honourable privy council.' you service, W. RALEGH, THE SAME TO THE SAME, SIR,-I pray send me the news of Ireland. I hear that there are 3,000 of the Burgks' in arms, and young Odonell, and the sons of Shane Oneale. I wrote in a letter of Mr. Killegrew's, ten days past, a prophecy of this rebellion, which when the queen read, she made a scorn at my conceit, but you shall find it but a showree of a farther tempest. If you please to send me word of what you hear, I will be laughed at again in my opinion touching the same, and be bold to write you my farther suspi cion. Your cousin, the doting deputy, hath dispeopled me, of which I have written to your father already. It is a sign how my disgraces have passed the seas, and have been highly commended to that wise governor, who hath used me accordingly. So I leave to trouble you at this time, being become like a fish cast on dry land, gasping for breath, with lame legs, and lamer lungs. Yours, for the little while I shall desire to do you service, To my very loving friend, Sir W. RALEGH." Sir Walter remained in confinement till late in September 1592, when he was liberated from the Tower, and after shewing himself for two days in London he proceeded to the West of England to look after his share in the Madre de Dios. He appears, in the opinion of some people at least, to have been well used in this adventure; for we read in a letter written by Mr. Anthony Bacon, early in the year 1592-3 to Mr. (afterward Sir) Anthony Standen,-Sir Walter Ralegh having been almost a year in disgrace, for several occasions, as I think c Murdin's State Papers, p. 657-8. a See a letter from Mr. Morgan Colman, to Mr. Anthony Bacon, dated London, September 23d 1592, among Mr. Bacon's papers, before referred to, II, 142. |