Sir Walter now devoted himself, with his usual ar dour, to the affairs of parliament, and we find him taking a leading part in all jousts and tournaments. In the year 1600 he went out as joint ambassador to Flanders along with Lord Cobham, and on his return he was appointed governor of Jersey. In 1601 he attended the queen in a progress through iiart of the kingdom, and he was soon after appointed to receive and confer with the Duke of Biron, on his arrival as ambassador from France.
When his rival, the Earl of Essex, had been condemn ed to death for high treason, Raleigh is said to have indecently urged his execution on the minister Cecil ; and, what is still more unworthy of his name, he is re ported to have been an eye-witness of the executiA. The death of Queen Elizabeth in the beginning of 160:3, which was probably accelerated by the fate of her favourite Essex, gave a blow to the fortunes of Raleigh from which he never recovered.
When James VI. ascended the throne, he brought with him many feelings which were not favourable to the interests of Sir Walter. James had naturally a pre possession against him as the enemy of Essex ; and this was much increased when he found that he was one of a party that had conceived the design of forcing the king to limit the number of Scotsmen whom he was to bring along with him. Although Raleigh made no slight struggle to displace Sir Robert Cecil from the king's confidence, yet his efforts were in vain, and he was scarcely received with ordinary civility. Accus tomed to the sunshine of royal favour, and to the re spect and admiration of all ranks, the chivalrous spirit of Raleigh could but ill brook this haughty and un merited treatment. At first, indeed, he seems to have sunk under the royal frown ; but, by a revulsion not unnatural in his circumstances, a sentiment of revenge speedily displaced that of despondency, and the in fluence of his name and his talents was thrown into the scale of disaffection. The enemies of James, who had conspired to place Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne, appear to have availed themselves of Raleigh's excited feelings, and to have induced him to participate in this ill-contrived and absurd treason. Raleigh was immediately apprehended and charged with the highest of political crimes. His accuser was Lord Cobham, an
unprincipled nobleman, who was himself concerned in the plot, and to whose own proposals Raleigh seems only to have listened. Sir Walter was indicted for conspir ing to deprive the king of his throne, to raise up sedition within the realm, to alter the religion, to bring in the Roman superstition, and to procure foreign enemies to invade the kingdom. The principal overt act laid in the indictment was, that he had a conference with Lord Cobham on the best means of advancing Lady Arabella Stuart to the crown, and of applying to the king of Spain to procure his assistance. In his defence Sir Walter displayed the greatest eloquence as well as temper and force of argument, and he made an able stand against the legality of conviction upon the evi dence of a single witness. These objections, however, were overruled, and the judge degraded his office by passing sentence on Raleigh. Even Cook, the attorney general, who used the vile privileges of a lawyer in abusing Raleigh, could not avoid expressing surprise at the sentence, and declared that he had charged him only misprison of treason. Three of the conspi rators in this plot were executed, two were pardoned, and Raleigh, who had only obtained a reprieve, was committed to the tower.
In this condition of hopeless confinement, his wife was, at her own earliest desire, allowed to live with hint, and their youngest son was born in the Tower. To beguile the tedium of confinement, Sir Walter devoted his mind to study, and composed the greater number of his works, especially his HIst(,ry of the World, a production remarkable for the purity and vigour of its style. The situation of our author seems to have ex cited much commiseration and sympathy Even Prince Henry, a youth of warm affection and great promise, not only cherished the highest admiration for the talents of Raleigh, but ventured to correspond with him, and to relieve the solitude of his confinement by his sym pathy and friendship. "No king," the prince is reported to have said, "but my father, would keep such a bird in a cage." The death of this generous prince, how ever, extinguished in the mind Raleigh all hopes of deliverance.