and humble states of Holland. Philip, in political reprisal, raised stubborn insurrections in Ireland; and the pope, to give the rebellion permanence and plausibility, embraced that kingdom in the circle of S'. Peter. It were impertinent to my subject to dwell on the origin of the hugonots, and their opposition to the guisards; to reconcile Queen Elizabeth's defence of another prince's oppressed subjects, at a moment when imminent danger, from such oppressions, threatened her own; or to aggravate her motives against France, in particular, from the recent violation of covenants relative to the surrender of Calais. Suffice it to observe, that with her hands full at home, by the insurrections of the earl of Northum berland and Leonard Dacres, she was not wanting in commiseration and assistance to the persecuted protestants of France. Having made use of her influence with other princes of the same persuasion, in promoting the cause, she accepted a pledge of jewels against a loan of money to the queen of Navarre, and permitted Henry Champernon, a relative by marriage to the earl of Montgomery, to march k * During his residence with his first wife, Mary, queen of England, Philip had been the protector of Elizabeth, who was then in no small danger from the violence of the popish party. On her advancement to the throne, he offered her marriage; and his disappointment in that respect, her adherence to the protestant interest, and her constant opposition of his immoderate ambition, made him at last her most implacable enemy. into France with a select troop of well equipped volunteers, one hundred in number, and all gentlemen. Let valour decide the contest, streamed on their standard. In the list were Philip Butshid, Francis Barcley, and Walter Ralegh; the two first afterward men of note; the last the most distinguished of them all, then a youth, and commencing his career.1 This select troop of horse arrived in the French camp in October 1569, (the beginning of the third civil war), and was received with great distinction by the queen of Navarre and the princes." Although the French writers, as well as our own, leave us in the dark as to its particular services in France, or the time of its continuance there, we may conclude that Ralegh gained considerable reputation in that country. Hooker says, he spent good part of his youth in wars and martial services there; and another writer, who seems also to have known him, adds, speaking of his education,-it was not part, but wholly, gentleman, wholly soldier."° 1 The words of Camden are,-admodum adolescens jam primum fatis monstratus. Annales Elizab. Ann. 1569. m III. Non. Oct. quo eodem die Henricus Champernounus cum c equitibus Anglis egregie instructis in castra venit, a Navarrace regina ac principibus honorifice exceptus, in cujus vexillo inscriptum erat DET MIHI VIRTUS FINEM. Thuani sui temp. Hist. lib. 46. II. See Sir Walter Ralegh's ghost, or England's forewarner, c. Utrecht, printed by John Schellem, 40, 1626, p. 15. From these circumstances, we may not only ac-. count for the chasm which we find about this period in all the memoirs of Sir Walter's life, but may also presume, that, viewing the extensive and instructive scene of extraordinary events which their political theatre at this time exhibited, he was initiated by this (then) polite, warlike, and diplomatic, people in those civil and military accomplishments which he afterward so conspicuously displayed. Ralegh was still in France after the death of Charles IX," an event which took place about five 1574. years after his arrival in that kingdom; and as this interval embraces nearly thirty battles, sieges, treaties, and capitulations, the school must of necessity have proved a fine one for the initiation of our young volunteer. In his History of the World he has bequeathed us the following memorandum of this period. I remember it well, that when the prince of Condy was slain, after the battle of Jarnac, (which prince, together with the admiral Chastillon, had the conduct of the protestant army), the. protestants did greatly bewail the loss of the said prince, in respect of his religion, person, and birth; yet, comforting themselves, they thought it rather an advancement, than an hinderance, to their af P For Hakluyt, in the dedication prefixed to the first edition of his Voyages, informs his patron he had been five years in France; and, in his dedication to Ralegh of the Florida voyages (Appendix, N°. II), he writes, calling to mind you had spent more years in France than I, &c. fairs: for so much did the valour of the one outreach the advisedness of the other, as whatsoever the admiral intended to win, by attending the advantage, the prince adventured to lose, by being over-confident in his own courage." By what means Ralegh escaped the horrible massacre of Paris and the provinces, on the evening of S'. Bartholomew, 1572, we are left in uncertainty. It is probable, however, that he found refuge in the ambassador Walsingham's' house, in company with Lord Wharton, young Sidney, and others. His return to England is supposed to have taken 1575. place in the year 1575. The following poem, by Walter Rawely of the Middle Temple, was publish B. 5, c. ii, s. 3, and farther on, s. 8, he observes, that worthy gentleman, Count Lodowick of Nassau, brother to the late famous prince of Orange, made the retreat at Moncontour with so great resolution, as he saved one half of the protestant army, then broken and disbanded, of which myself was an eyewitness, and was one of them who had cause to thank him for it. "In Digges' Complete Ambassador, folio, 1655, p. 250, we read, in a letter from Lord Burleigh, Leicester, and others, to Walsingham, dated Woodstock, Sept. 9, 1572,-we understand that the English gentlemen that were in Paris at the time of the execution of the murther were forced to retire to your house, where they did wisely. For your care of them, we and their friends are beholding to you; and now we think good that they be advised to return home; and namely, we desire you to procure for Lord Wharton and Mr. Philip Sidney the king's licence and safe conduct to come thence; and so we do require you to give them true knowledge of our minds herein. ed the next year, prefixed to a satire intituled the Steele Glass,' by George Gascoigne, Esq. a writ- 1576 er of repute in those days. Sweet were the sauce would please each kind of taste, Tho' sundry minds in sundry sort do deem, Yet worthiest wights yield praise for ev'ry pain; Wherefore, to write my censure of this book, This Glass of Steel impartially doth shew Abuses all to such as in it look From prince to poor, from high estate to low. As for the verse, who list like trade to try I fear me much shall hardly reach so high. This is the poem already alluded to, and which led Wood to pronounce Ralegh a student in the Middle Temple. The manner in which the name is written (Rawely) would make us at least hesitate * See A Hundred several flowers, bound up in one small poesy, 4to, without date. |