ceived in his expectation; for the deserted camp was broken into by a tumultuous body of the rebels, whom he instantly charged, and all were either slain or made prisoners.* One of them when taken had a bundle of withes or willow-ropes on his shoulder; and being asked what use he meant to put them to, answered, "Why, to hang up the English churls!" "Well," said Raleigh, they will now do for an Irish kerne," and commanded him to be suspended in one of his own collars,-an instance of severity too much in character with the stern and exasperating policy at that time pursued by the generals of Elizabeth.

66

Lord Grey having procured artillery, now laid siege to the fort; and for the first three days Raleigh commanded in the trenches, where John Cheke, the son of Sir John Cheke, tutor to Edward VI., and whose name has been embalmed in a sonnet of Milton, was slain. "He was," says a quaint biographer, "a tall proper gentleman; but he paid dear for his curiosity, for venturing to look over the parapet, a Spaniard levelled his piece and picked him off." The full batteries were now opened, and the assault prosecuted so desperately that the foreigners hung out a flag of truce. But Grey, a veteran and unrelenting soldier, refused to grant any terms except those of an unconditional surrender. At this time the famous poet Edmund Spenser was at head-quarters, and he has left us an account of the conference. 66 When," says he, "their secretary, Seignior Jeffrey, an Italian, was sent to treat with the lord-deputy for grace, he was flatly refused it; and afterwards when their colonel, named Don Sebastian, came forth to entreat that they might part with their arms like soldiers, and at least be spared their lives, according to the custom of war and law of nations, it was strongly denied him, and told him by the lord-deputy himself, that they could not justly plead either custom of war or law of nations, for that they were not any lawful enemies. * *Neither were

* Cox's History of Ireland, p. 367.

the Earl and John of Desmond any thing but rebels and traitors, and therefore they, who came to succour them, no better than rogues and runagates; * *wherefore it would be dishonourable for him, in the name of his queen, to condition, or make any terms with such rascals." It is painful to pursue the story farther. The fort surrendered, and orders were given by the inexorable deputy to put the garrison to the sword,-sparing only an Irish nobleman and a few Spanish officers, who were sent prisoners to England. Elizabeth, although she exculpated the inferior officers, who simply obeyed orders, expressed herself deeply dissatisfied with their leader on account of this piece of cruelty.*

For some time after this the life of Raleigh was that of an aspiring soldier, enthusiastic in his profession, and mortified "by the poor place and charge which he enjoyed under the lord-deputy." In a letter to the Earl of Leicester, whose favour he seems to have enjoyed at this time, he declares that were it not that Grey was the friend of that powerful favourite, "he would disdain his charge as much as to keep sheep," and describes Ireland as a lost land, not a commonwealth, but a commonwo. This discontent, however, was of short duration. Sir Walter rose in the confidence of the government; and his activity was so great in reducing the seditious practices of Lord Barry, and other leaders of the rebellion, -in the repulse of Fitz-Edmonds,—the capture of Lord Roch,—and the restoration of the country to a state of security,—that he was repeatedly promoted to situations of trust and responsibility. On the return of the Earl of Ormond to England, the government of Munster was committed to Raleigh, in conjunction with Sir William Morgan and Captain Pierce; and the same year we find him holding the chief command in the city of Cork. The variety of his exploits, and the apparently contradictory qualities which he exhibited, were remarkable.

He

* See a letter writen about this time to the Earl of Leicester, Cayley's Life, p. 25. + Cayley's Life, vol. i. p. 25.

united the daring courage of the old knight of chivalry with the calm judgment and the love of stratagem which distinguished a later and more refined age. Of the first he gave an example in the defeat of Fitz-Edmonds, where he twice rescued and saved the life of one of the gentlemen of his company at the imminent peril of his own. Of the last he furnished a no less striking instance in the surprise and seizure of the Lord Roch in his own castle, surrounded by a powerful garrison, and in a country where the enemy had carefully occupied every road and fastness.

Upon the suppression of the rebellion Raleigh returned to England, with a reputation for valour and experience well known to those with whom he had served, but which was lost at court amidst the dazzling brilliancy of superior rank and power. Nor could it well be otherwise; for at this moment the throne of Elizabeth was surrounded by a nobility amongst whom was to be found all that was illustrious in birth and pre-eminent in genius, by statesmen, and warriors both by land and sea, whose names have become familiar and stirring words, indissolubly associated with every recollection of the glory of their country.

The sagacious and wary BURLEIGH was now in the zenith of his power, the favoured minister of his royal mistress, and possessing an influence over her masculine mind which no other amongst her servants ever retained so long. Capricious, and exhibiting the weakness and mutability of a woman to his rivals Leicester and Essex, she maintained an invariable regard for Cecil; her confidence in his councils was never shaken; and upon every subject relating to internal administration or foreign policy, his opinion, although openly and severely canvassed at the moment it was given, was silently followed in the end. And yet, although the chosen minister of this great queen, Cecil was not a man of splendid genius or of brilliant and original endowments. In tracing the principles of his government, and studying the accounts of his private life, it will be found that the prominent