stern partisans with whom he was associated. In Languedoc, a Huguenot party discovered a wang-place of Catholics, a cavern to which a amber of refugees (the Huguenots being just then dominant in that part of the country) had fed, with provisions, plate, and jewellery. The Huguenot soldiers fired bundles of brushwood and straw at the entrance of the cave, and the Catholics, unable to endure the suffocating smoke, came out and surrendered themselves and all their property. Whether their lives were spared we know not; but probably their captain, having etained possession of the rich spoil, was mercifully inclined. In 1575, at the age of twenty-three, Raleigh eturned to England, and entered his name as a dent at the Middle Temple. We have no record of his life for the next two or three years; but we may suppose that the handsome and acrompusbed young Templar, who had seen service ahmed, and who possessed such rare gifts of versation and fascination of manner, was a some addition to the society of youthful lars and men of fashion who made the Temple Gardens and Hall, and the adjacent averns, their chosen meeting-places. His symby with the Protestant cause, and his dislike spam, feelings strengthened by his early educaa were not diminished, and in 1578 he went a valunteer in an English expedition under John Norris, to the aid of the Prince of Cage, who had united the northern and extern provinces of Holland in a determined enkavour to shake off the Spanish yoke. He va present at the defeat of the Spaniards on Lammas Day, in that year, and then appears to returned to England. PROJECTED DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. Raleigh's half-brother, Humphrey Gilbert, who cad served in the Irish wars, and been knighted this courage and ability, was at this time in London, and earnestly studying the possibility f darovering a north-west passage to China and Inria. Walter sympathized with the project, practical mind grafted on it other objects be attained-the weakening of the Spanish ;wer in the Western Continent and the foundaof British colonies. The result was the aration of "A Discourse on the Discovery of Sew Pamage to Cathay and the East Indies," bly to show the possibility of a north*t passage, but really to suggest an expedition, mare likely to receive general support. The *Inscourse" was signed by Gilbert, but it is not difficult to discern the hand of Raleigh in the composition. Many Spanish, French, and Portuguese ships were employed in the fisheries off the cost of Newfoundland; and on reaching the "banks," it was customary for the crews to take to their boats, or go on shore to cure the fish, leaving only a few hands on board. The "Discourse" proposed to make a dash at the unprotected vessels, take possession of them, return to Europe, and sell them, for the purpose of providing funds for fitting out a fleet, to be employed in attacking the Spanish possessions in America, and grouping them together as the "United Indies," a splendid addition indeed to the English domains, could the project be realized. That it savoured considerably of piracy was no valid objection in the estimation of the navigators and adventurers of those days; and the exploits of Hawkins, Drake, and others are only divided by a very fine, almost undistinguishable line, from the adventures of the buccaneers. Gilbert and Raleigh shrewdly conjectured that the open announcement of the project would induce very active measures on the part of Spain against England for infringement of a treaty of peace then existing, and therefore it was probably suggested to Elizabeth that she should affect indignation, describe the writers of the "Discourse as pirates and agents of the Prince of Orange, and some persons might even undergo a short imprisonment, so as to save the Government from the imputation of faithlessness. Thinking apparently that the Queen might entertain scruples, the writer added, "I hold it as lawful and Christian policy to prevent a mischief betimes, as to revenge it too late, especially seeing that God Himself is a party in the common quarrel now afoot." This communication is preserved in the State Paper Office. There is a touch of Raleigh's elevated style in the concluding sentence, in which promptitude is urged: "If your Majesty like to do it at all, then would I wish your Highness to consider that delay doth oftentimes prevent the performance of good things, for the wings of man's life are plumed with the feathers of death." Elizabeth evidently privately approved of the enterprise, although she might not think it politic openly to patronize it; for she sanctioned the engagement in it of two of her relatives, Henry and Francis, sons of Sir Francis Knollys. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was the commander, and selected for his officers Walter Raleigh and his brother George, and Denny, one of their Devonshire cousins. By the end of the summer of 1570, a fleet of eleven ships, with five hundred mariners and soldiers, was collected on the Devonshire coast, a force evidently much too large for the proposed search for a north-west passage. Indeed, very little concealment of the real purpose of the expedition seems to have been attempted. While preparing for the voy age, discord broke out among the chiefs. The Knollyses were arrogant and overbearing, paying little respect to the nominal leader; and the crews, composed chiefly of reckless and profligate adventurers, brawled and rioted in the streets of Plymouth, the disturbances leading to murder. The Lord Lieutenant of the county, the Earl of Bedford, demanded that the murderers should be delivered over to the civil power, but Henry Knollys, to whose ship they belonged, set the authorities at defiance. The quarrels between Gilbert and the Knollyses, who persuaded Denny to take their side, reached such a height, that the former appealed to the Mayor of Plymouth, who decided in his favour, the result being that the Knollyses and Denny sailed away with four ships on a piratical expedition on their own account. The Queen approved of Gilbert's conduct; and on the 19th November, the expedition, with seven ships and three hundred and fifty men, sailed from Plymouth. The idea of capturing the fishing vessels off Newfoundland appears to have been abandoned, perhaps was expressly forbidden by the Queen ; and the West Indies were the destination of the fleet. In the following spring, a Spanish fleet was encountered, and a sharp action ensued. The adventurers were beaten with great loss, one of the best officers, Captain Miles Morgan (whom Henry Knollys had threatened to hang at the yard-arm when at Plymouth), being among the killed. Gilbert and Raleigh, thus discomfited, returned to England. Their designs were not abandoned, but only postponed until a more favourable opportunity. SERVICE IN THE IRISH WARS. The energetic mind of Raleigh could not rust inactively. A new field was offered for enterprise. In February, 1580, he obtained the captainey of a troop of a hundred men, and started for Ireland. An insurrection, headed by the Earl of Desmond, and encouraged, it was suspected, by agents of Philip, the Spanish king, had broken out in Munster, and assistance from England was urgently demanded. Men were enlisted and despatched in haste; but so little provision was made, that when Raleigh reached Cork, the Irish authorities refused to pay his men, whom he was obliged to satisfy from his private means, probably not very abundant after the losses incurred by the failure of Gilbert's expedition. In August, he was associated with Sir Warham St. Leger, provost-marshal of Munster, for the trial of James Desmond, brother of the Earl, who was executed as a traitor. The insurgent Irish were little better than savages, and their barbarities in warfare were appalling. Then, as in later times, Ireland was almost the despair of English politicians There was an ineradicable animosity between the conquered and the conquerors; and the descendants of the English settlers who had become allied by marriage with the Irish race, were, as it has been said, "more Irish than the Irish themselves." Raleigh speaks of Ireland as "that lost land, that commonwealth of common woe;" and the only method of government English statesmen and soldiers could conceive possible was the most stringent coercion, and extermination by slaughter of the disaffected. Raleigh and other officers showed little mercy to those who fell into their hands. The chief command was held by Sir William Pelham, a man of small ability either as statesman or soldier; and soon nearly the whole island was in a state of insurrection. Pelham was superseded by Lord Arthur Grey of Walton, a man of the sternest Puritan type. rigid in doctrine, uncompromising in his hatred of Papistry, and merciless to his opponents. H.s private secretary, the poet Edmund Spenser (with that peculiar if somewhat abject gift of perceiving all virtues in patrons, which was the moral weakness of that age of genius) describes Grey as a most gentle, affable, loving, and temperate lord." If so in England, he certainly changed his nature when he crossed St. George's Channel. He soon discerned the military qualities of Raleigh, and employed him in various services where resolution and activity were demanded. On one of these occasions he was sent to take possession of the castle and lands of Lord Barry. of Harry Court, Cork. The rebels formed an ambush on the road, and it was only by the desperate valour of Raleigh that his little band was saved. He was unhorsed, and for a time. armed only with a pistol, kept twenty of the enemy at bay. We now approach the most painful incident connected with Raleigh's Irish career. The Fort del Oro, on the shore of Smerwick Bay, Kerry, was garrisoned by six or seven hundred Spaniards and Italians, who had come across the sea to aid the insurgents. Lord Grey determined to attempt the capture of the fort, and arranged with Admiral Winter for a joint attack by land and rer, but the Italian commander, San Giuseppa, my eithey were there by command of the Pope, Lad taken Ireland from his (Grey's) heretical Lustress, and given it to the king of Spain.” Irated by the answer, Grey gave orders for a vas bombardment by land and sea, which was effective that a white flag was shown tm the fort, and a messenger was sent to the Esh commander to tell him that the gar nl they had been deceived, and would Te itae fort and return to their own country. Gypled that they must yield without con4. ts, and surrender themselves as prisoners, the disposed of as he thought fit. On the 1 wrz morning San Giuseppa and his prin"pal officers came bare-headed to the English ar and were permitted to return with the estan ling that they would receive honourand treatment on the formal surrender of the fe, which was to take place on the following day. Early in the morning, sailors from the A were landed, and a band of soldiers commasi by Raleigh and another captain, Mac ra, cntered the fort; and then followed a far scene of massacre. The surprised and tare soldiers of the garrison, defenceless, in theef that they would be honourably treated wners of war, were ruthlessly slaughtered, y a few of the officers being spared, in order Lat the murderers might be enriched by the ens pad for their ransom. There is no evidence tr Paleigh shared in this disgraceful spoil; bat aximpossible to acquit him of the guilt, not to palliated by the plea of obeying orders, of ng the chief agent in the commission of the rss deed. Spenser justified it on the ground that the short way was the only way to dispose tam;" and Grey calmly reported to the go*rment at home, “I put in certain bands, who artway fell to execution: there were six And slain." Queen Elizabeth replied with tal callousness, thanking him for "the enrive performed by you, so greatly to our sortly afterwards the government of Munster entrusted by commission to Raleigh, in connet.on with Sir W. Morgan and another He atshed his head-quarters first at Lismore, and terwards at Cork, near which he engaged in a p action with a band of rebels, and had his te shot under him. He displayed remarkable rai ar, but would have been killed had it not won for the courage of his servant, Nicholas Wright, a Yorkshireman, who rescued him at fe risk of his own life. AT ELIZABETH'S COURT. In December, 1581, he returned to England, whither his reputation had preceded him. It is said that Lord Grey returned at the same time, and that differences which had arisen between them were discussed at the Council board, in the presence of the Queen, and that Raleigh maintained his views with such eloquence and grace of manner, that he got the Queen's ear "in a trice." It is now known, however, that Grey did not return at the same time, and Raleigh's sudden rise into Court favour was due to other causes. Neither need we place much reliance on the often-told story of Raleigh's throwing down his richly embroidered cloak for the Queen to step on when crossing a muddy path. That Raleigh, or, indeed, any of the young gentlemen about the Court, and ambitious of royal favour, would have done as much or more in that age of fantastic gallantry and obsequious loyalty, is likely enough, but the anecdote rests on a very slight foundation of authority. We need not, indeed, look far for a reason besides the value of his services in Ireland, why Raleigh should be well received at Court. He was, indeed, remotely connected with Elizabeth's family; for her relative, Lord Hunsdon, was also related to Raleigh. Mrs. Catherine Ashley, the governess, intimate friend, and confidant of Elizabeth when a girl, was his mother's sister-inlaw, and aunt of Sir Humphrey Gilbert; and among his other relatives were Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, husband of Mary Sidney, Lord Howard, of Effingham, and other noblemen and gentlemen holding high offices at Court. It must be admitted, too, that he was eminently qualified by person, attainments, and taste for splendour, to occupy an exalted position in the distinguished group which surrounded Elizabeth at Greenwich or Whitehall. Tall and strikingly handsome, his form, developed by manly exercises, was at once strong and graceful; and his facile and winning speech, his vast store of information, never ostentatiously displayed, but always ready when occasion demanded, his quick wit, and readiness in all the arts of adroit and poetic flattery then so fashionable and so acceptable to the Queen, marked him as a candidate for special favour; and soon the whispers of the courtly circle intimated that possibly a powerful rival to the impetuous Essex and the ambitious Dudley would be found in the person of the gallant young adventurer, who already outstripped all competitors in splendour of dress and gallantry of manner. Miss Strickland, in her biography of Queen Elizabeth, says, "So varied, so brilliant, were the talents of Raleigh, as soldier, seaman, statesman, poet, philosopher, and wit, that it would have been wonderful if a woman so peculiarly susceptible as Elizabeth had not felt the power of his fascinations." The Queen was at this time forty-nine years of age, and Raleigh was thirty. On his part, Raleigh was not slow to avail himself of the advantages of the favourable position he had attained. His ambitious spirit was restrained by few scruples of modesty in asking for gifts. He was determined to rise in the world, and saw that wealth and influence were means of helping him towards that end. We may well believe that his ultimate aims were large and not sordid, and that his ambition was to be associated with great achievements; indeed, the whole tenor of his life justifies us in assuming so much. The doctrine that the end justifies the means was at that time widely accepted. and certainly Raleigh was not disposed to repudiate it in cases where no flagrant departure from principles of morality was involved. Elizabeth, proud and sensitive, was annoyed when her partiality was noticed, and took oc. casion to speak abruptly, almost rudely, to those whom really she most favoured. Raleigh knew her humour, received the "snub" with profound deference, but continued to ask for gifts and promotion, and the Queen continued to confer them. "If," says a contemporary writer, "anything was to be given away, he lost no time in soliciting it of the Queen, to the infinite displeasure of his jealous compeers. Elizabeth herself sometimes was impatient." "When will you cease to be a beggar, Raleigh?" she once said. "When, Madam, you cease to be a benefactress," was the ready reply. Sometimes, indeed, he presumed on her favour, as on one occasion, when the Queen going to Croydon, he took possession of the apartments prepared for Sir Christopher Hatton, the Vice-Chamberlain, who complained to Elizabeth that he could not therefore attend on her as his office required. The Queen was angry, and wrote to Sir Christopher, saying she would rather see Raleigh hanged than equal him with Hatton, or that the world should think she did." That a man so shrewd and experienced as Raleigh would have ventured so far, had he not been encouraged by Elizabeth herself, is not probable; and an anec. dote often told appears to be authentic. Raleigh wrote with a diamond on a pane of glass, taking care that she should see him, in the Queen's apartments, "Fain would I rise, but that I fear to fall;" to which she added, "If thy heart fail thee, do not climb at all." Instigated by the jealousy of the courtiers, Tarleton, the jester, in a play performed at Court, ventured to point at Raleigh when saying the words, See the knave commands the Queen;" for which piece of audacity he was disgraced and punished. He received another military appointment in Ireland; but the Queen, because "he is for so many considerations by us licensed to stay here," permitted the duties to be performed by deputy, and he was allowed to appoint lieutenants, who were to be " obeyed as he himself would be." His appointment was very distasteful to Lord Grey, who wrote to Walsingham, "As to Captain Raleigh, I neither like his carriage nor his company, and therefore, other than by direction and commandment, and what his rights require, he is not to expect from my hands." Three months afterwards Grey ceased to be Lord Deputy of Ireland, probably by Raleigh's influence. On one occasion Raleigh got into trouble by engaging in a quarrel, within the Court precints, with Sir Thomas Perrot, a fiery young man, who probably resented some little display of arro. gance on the part of the favourite. The Lords of the Council sent them both to the Fleet prison, where they remained for six days, and then were released, on entering into bonds to keep the peace. This escapade did not hinder honour and emoluments being showered upon him. He was made captain of the guard, seneschal of the county of Cornwall, and lord warden of the stannaries, and received a grant of twelve thousand acres of the forfeited estates in Ireland of the Earl of Desmond, and a lucrative patent, or monopoly, for licensing keepers of taverns and rectifying wines throughout the kingdom. Afterwards the estate of Anthony Babington, executed for conspiracy, was conferred on him. At all joustings, pageants, and royal progresses Raleigh accompanied the Queen. "Music and poetry were her delight, Therefore she had Italian masques by night, That she permitted Raleigh to address her in the fantastic style of romantic love-making then a fashion among Court gallants and their lady loves, can scarcely be doubted. It was well understood that the Queen and Sir Walter were the "Belphoebe" and Timon" of Spenser's immortal Faerie Queen. Timon is wounded in battle, and lies in sore plight on the ground, where he is found by Belphobe and her damsels, who take him to "their dwelling in a pleasant file." "And what could he do," asks the poet, tat love so fair a lady that his life releast?" Afterwards Belphobe discovers that there is another lady," Amoret," better loved than herself, and who this Amoret is we shall presently see. SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT'S VOYAGE. The pleasures and splendour of Court life did t induce Raleigh to forget his favourite scheme of establishing colonies in North America. Early in 153, Sir Humphrey Gilbert determined to make another attempt to avail himself of the parent obtained five years before; and Raleigh was now in a position to assist him materially, ty contributing two thousand pounds towards the equipment of a vessel. The Queen was gramously pleased to approve of the expedition, and en Gilbert, as a mark of her favour, a golden ator, to be worn at his heart," the only con tion," remarks a modern writer, "of the great princess to an expedition intended to transpazt the arts of England to the waste regions of the new world." The expedition started from fymouth on the 11th of June; but two days after sailing, the vessel Raleigh had equipped, and which bore his name, returned to port, the nsson given being that an infectious fever had Gilbert either did roken out among the crew. st know of this excuse, or did not believe it, for arriving at Newfoundland, he wrote, “On the 13th, the bark Raleigh ran from me, in fair and ⚫lear weather, having a large wind. I pray you sourit my brother Raleigh to make them an example to all knaves." He reached Newfoundand with five ships, and then sailed southwards. Two of the vessels were wrecked, and Gilbert melf perished. He was a man of true heroic cast of mind; and when last seen by those award the other ships, who were unable to ter aid, sitting calmly with a Bible in his hand, he was heard to say to his men, "Be of good heart, my friends; we are as near heaven by sea as by land." The following night the ghts of the ship suddenly disappeared. Longfellow has written a striking poem on the subject. THE FIRST EXPEDITION TO VIRGINIA. Raleigh was not discouraged by the fate of his half-brother; but when the remaining ships arrived in England with the sad news, he obtained another charter, incorporating himself, Adrian Gilbert, and John Davys as "The College of the Fellowship for the Discovery of the North-West Passage." But colonization, rather than discovery, was his principal object; and in a memorial to the Queen and Council he set forth the advantages to be obtained by establishing settlements on the American continent. The result was that in 1584 he obtained a new charter. Raleigh did not go with the expedition-one writer observes that his presence was too necessary at Court; but his two captains, Amadis and Barlowe, reached the American coast, and took possession, in the name of the Queen, of a considerable tract of country on the Roanoke, a large river flowing into what is now known as Albemarle Sound, in North Carolina. They returned in September, bringing with them skins of buffalo and deer, and a bracelet of large pearls, with two natives of the country they had discovered. Raleigh obtained permission to name the territory Virginia, in honour of the "virgin Queen," and he had a new seal cut, with the legend, Walteri Raleigh, militis Domini et Gubernatoris Virginia. The Queen conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and encouraged him to send out another expedition, By the end of the following March (1585), a fleet of seven ships, well provided, and taking a hundred settlers, left Plymouth. The command of the expedition was entrusted to his cousin, a Cornish gentleman, Sir Richard Grenville, afterwards (1591) 30 famous for his heroic death in the seatight, in which he held at bay for fifteen hours fifteen large Spanish ships, an unparalleled exploit, commemorated by Tennyson in a ballad founded on the account of the fight written by Raleigh and Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch navigator in the Portuguese service. The governor of the new colony was to be Ralph Lane, with Philip Amadis as deputy; and Harriot, a clever mathematician, who had been tutor to Raleigh, accompanied the expedition for the purpose of making accurate surveys. Grants of land, of not less than a hundred acres to each emigrant, were made, and at first matters promised well; but dissensions occurred, and the Indians, at first described as gentle and friendly, "loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as live after the manner of the golden age," afterwards attacked the settlers. At the height of the trouble of the little community, there appeared, off the mouth of the Roanoke, the fleet of Sir Francis Drake, returning from sacking St. Domingo, Carthagena, and other places on the Spanish main. Drake offered to supply the settlers with provisions; but they implored to be taken back to England, and he was induced to receive them on board his vessels. Very shortly afterwards, Sir Richard Grenville arrived with supplies which |