the King and his Cubs be taken away 2. To have a Toleration of Religion 3. To procure Aid and Assistance from Forreign Princes 4. To turn out of the Court such as they disliked and place themselves in Offices Watson to be Lord Chancellor George Brook Lord Treasurer Sir Griffin Markham Secretary of State Lord Grey to be Master of the Horse and Earl Marshal of England But it seems they made no Provision for Rawleigh which is no inconsiderable Argument of his Innocency who could have deserved and might have expected as great a reward as any of them had he been engaged in the Plot To oblige to Secrecy Watson draws up an Oath But all is betrayed they are Seized Examined and Tryed at Winchester Nov. 17. 1603. and the Lord Cobham George Brook his Brother Thomas Lord Grey of Wilton Sir Walter Rawleigh Sir Griffith Markham and Sir Edward Parham Knights Bartholomew Brooksby and Anthony Copley Gentlemen W. Watson W. Clark Priests were all found guilty of Treason except Sir Edward Parham who was acquitted and Watson and Clark were executed Nov. 29. George Brook was beheaded Decemb. 5. but here the hand of Justice staid the Lord Cobham Lord Grey and Sir Griffith Markham were pardoned at the place of Execution Sir Walter Rawleigh was left to the Kings Mercy who thought him too great a Male-content to have his Freedom and probably too innocent to lose his Life Therefore he is confined to the Tower where he writ that excellent History of the World wherein the only fault or defect rather is that it wanteth one half thereof which was occasioned as it is commonly related thus Some few days before he suffered he sent for Mr. Walter Burr who formerly printed his first Volume of the History of the World and asking him how it sold Mr. Burr answered It sold so slowly that it had undone him At which words Sir Walter stepping to his Desk reaches his other unprinted part of his History which he had brought down to the times he lived in and clapping his hand upon his breast said with a sigh Ah my friend hath the first part undone thee the second Part shall undo no more this ungrateful World is unworthy of it and immediately going to the Fire-side threw it in and set his Foot upon it till it was consumed As great a loss to Learning as Christendom could have sustained and the greater because it could be repaired by no hand but his While Sir Walter was thus confined Death took away his Mortal Enemy Sir Robert Cecil after Earl of Salisbury who had purchased the Monopoly of Favour and being jealous of Sir Walters Abilities had some fear he might supplant him which was the cause says Osborn that he was brought to the aforementioned Trial However Sir Walter outlived his Designs and Hatred and for all kindnesses bestowed on him the following Epitaph which is certainly affirmed to be his King James was so taken with the smartness of them that he hoped the Author would dye before him The Verses are these Here lies Hobnial our Pastor while er'e That once in a Quarter our Fleeces did share To please us his Cur he kept under Clog And was ever after both Shepherd and Dog For Oblation to Pan his Custom was thus He first gave a Trifle then offered up us And through his false worship such power he did gain As kept him o' th' Mountain and us on the Plain Where many an Hornpipe he tun'd to his Phillis And sweetly sung Walsingham to 's Amaryllis Till Atropos clapt him a P on the Drab For spight of his Tar-box he di'd of the Scab If the Reader desires a key to these Verses he may have it in Osborn's Memoirs Fourteen years Sir Walter had spent in the Tower of whom Prince Henry would say That no King but his Father would keep such a Bird in a Cage and being weary of Confinement his Destiny brought him to his end by Liberty which it could not do by Imprisonment For out of a longing for Liberty he propounded a Project to the King upon which being a well spoken man and of great Capacity he set such colours of Probability especially guilding it over with the Gold he would fetch from a Mine Guiana in the West-Indies without any wrong at all to the King of Spain that the King granted him a limited Commission to undertake it and thereupon with divers Ships accompanied with many Knights and Gentlemen of Quality he set forward on the Voyage but when after long search no such Place nor Treasure could be found he fell upon St. Thome a Town belonging to the King of Spain Sacked Pillaged and Burnt it And here was the first part of his Tragical Voyage Acted in the death of his Eldest Son the last part was acted in his own death at his return For Gundamore the Spanish Embassador did so aggravate this Fact to the King against him that it seemed nothing would give satisfaction but Rawleigh's head without which he seemed to threaten a breach between the two Nations Rawleigh excused his Actions and sent this Defence thereof in a Letter to King James May it please your most Excellent Majesty If in my Journey outward bound I had my men murdered at the Island of St. Thomas and yet spared to take revenge If I did discharge some Spanish Barques taken without Spoil If I did forbear all Parts of the Spanish Indies wherein I might have taken twenty of their Towns on the Sea-coasts and did only Follow the Enterprise I undertook for Guiana where without any directions from me a Spanish Village was burnt which was new set up within three miles of the Mine by your Majesties favour I find no reason why the Spanish Embassador should complain of me If it were lawful for the Spaniards to murder twenty six English-men binding them back to back and then cutting their Throats when they had Traded with them a whole Month and came to them on the Land without so much as one Sword and that it may not be lawful for your Majesties subjects being charged first by them to repel Force by Force we may justly say Oh miserable English If Parker and Metham took Campeach and other Places in the Honduras seated in the Heart of the Spanish Indies burnt Towns killed the Spaniards and had nothing said to them at their return and my self forbore to look into the Indies because I would not offend I may justly say O miserable Sir Walter Rawleigh If I spent my poor Estate lost my Son suffered by sickness and otherwise a World of Miseries If I have resisted with the manifest hazard of my life the Robberies and Spoils which my Company would have made If when I was poor I have made my self Rich If when I had gotten my Liberty which all men and Nature it self do so much prize I voluntarily lost it If when I was sure of my life I rendred it again If I might elsewhere have sold my Ship
and Goods and put five or six Thousand pound in my pocket and yet have brought her into England I beseech your Majesty to believe that all this I have done because it should not be said to your Majesty That your Majesty had given Liberty and Trust to a Man whose end was only the Recovery of his Liberty and who had betrayed your Majesties Trust My Mutineers told me ' That if I returned for England I should be undone But I believed in your Majesties Goodness more than in all their Arguments Sure I am that I am the first that being free and able to enrich my self have imbraced Poverty and Peril and as sure I am that my Example shall make me the last But your Majesties Wisdom and Goodness I have made my Judges who have ever been and shall ever be Your Majesties most humble Vassal Walter Rawleigh Before Sir Walter made this Voyage the King commanded him upon pain of his Allegiance to give him under his hand promising on the word of a King to keep it secret the number of his Men the Burthen and Strength of his Ships together with the Countrey and River he was to enter which being done accordingly by Sir Walter That very Original Paper was found in the Spanish Governours Closet at St. Thoma so active were the Spanish Ministers that Advertisement was sent to Spain and thence to the Indies before the English Fleet got out of the Thames But now no Apology though never so perswasive could satisfie Gâ—ndamores Rage who as soon as news came of the firing St Thoma desired Audience of the King and 〈◊〉 he had but one word to say His Majesty wondering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be delivered in one word when he came before him he only bawl'd out Pyrates Pyrates Pyrates And was therefore now resolved to sacrifice the only Favourite left of Queen Elizabeth to the Spanish Interest and who was the only Person of the Earl Essex's Enemies that died lamented and the only Man of Note left alive that had helped to beat the Spaniard in 1588. When Sir Walter was arrived at Plymouth Sir Lewes Steukly seized him and was ordered by the King to bring him to London which could add no Terror to a Person who could expect nothing less and was now forced to use all the Arts imaginable to appease Hls Majesty and defer his Anger To which intent Manowry a French Quack at Salisbury gave him several Vomits and an Artificial Composition which made him look Gastly and Dreadful full of Pimples and Blisters and deceiv'd even the Physitians themselves who could not tell what to make of his Urine though often inspected it being adulterated with a Drug in the Glass that turned it even in their hands into an earthy humor of a blackish colour and of a very Offensive Savour while he lay under this Politick disguize he penned his Dedication and Apology aforementioned when he was brought to London he was confined only to his own house but finding the Court wholly guided by Gundamore he could hope for little Mercy therefore he designed to escape into France which Sir Lewes Steukly betrayed but the Fate of Traytors pursued him and brought him to a Contemptible end to dye a poor distracted Beggar in the Isle of Lindey having for a Bag of Money falsified his Faith confirmed by the tye of the Holy Sacrament as Mr. Howel relates and also before the year came about was found clipping the same very Coin in the Kings own Palace at Whitehal which he had received for a reward of his Perfidiousness for which being condemned to be hang'd he was forced to sell himself to his Shirt to purchase his Pardon of two Knights The King being willing to Sacrifice the life of Sir Walter Rawleigh to the advancement of the peace with Spain Upon St. Simon and Judes day the Lieutenant of the Tower had a Warrant to bring his Prisoner to the King's Bench Bar in Westminster-Hall where the Attorney General demanded Execution according to the Judgment pronounced against him at Winchester The Lord Chief Justice caused the Indictment Verdict and Judgment to be read and after asked him What he could say why he should not dye according to Law His answer was That this 15 Years he had lived upon the meer mercy of the King and did now wonder h w his mercy should be now turned into Judgment he not knowing any thing wherein he had provoked His Majesties displeasure and did hope that he was clear from that Judgment by the Kings Commission in making him General of the Voyage to Guiana For as he conceived the words to his trusty and well beloved Subject c. did in themselves imply a pardon But the Attorney General told him these words were not sufficient for that purpose whereupon he desired the opinion of the Court To which the Lord Chief Justice replyed That it was no pardon in Law Then began Sir Walter to give an account of his Voyage but was interrupted by the Lord Chief Justice who told him That it was not for any offence committed there but for his first Fact that he was now called in question and thereupon told him That seeing he must prepare to dye he would not add to his affliction nor aggravate his crime knowing him to be a man full of misery but with the good Samaritane would administer Wine and Oyl for the comfort of his distressed Soul You have been said he a General and a great Commander imitate therefore that Noble Captain who thrusting himself into the midst of a battle cryed out aloud Mors me expectat ego Mortem expectabo Death expects me and I will expect Death As you should not contemn so neither should you fear death the one shews too much boldness the other no less cowardice So with some few other Instructions the Court arose and Sir Walter was committed into the hands of the Sheriff of Middlesex who presently conveyed him to the Gate-House in Westminster Yet it has been much wondred at how that old sentence which had lain dormant 16 years and upward against Sir Walter could be now made use of to take off his head afterward Considering that the then Lord Chancellor Bacon told him positively as Sir Walter was acquainting him that he could procure his pardon for a less sum of money then his Guiana preparations amounted to Sir said he the Knee-timber of your Voyage is money spare your Purse in this particular for upon my life you have a sufficient pardon for all that is passed already the King having under his Broad-Seal made you Admiral of your Fleet and given you power of Martial Law over the Officers and Souldiers It was then likewise the opinion of many Lawyers that he who by His Majesties Patent had power of Life and Death over the Kings Leige People should be esteemed or Judged Rectus in curia and free from all Old Convictions Upon Thursday October 29. 1618. This couragious Knight was brought before the
out and thereby drew out the Peasant from his sweet Prison which otherwise had proved his Tomb. Causin's Holy Court Tom. 1. and 3. XXXIX Dr. Fuller in his Worthies gives 3 notable instances of this kind First Sr. Richard Edgcomb being zealous in the cause of Henry Earl of Richmond afterward King Henry the seventh was in the time of King Richard the Third so hotly persued and narrowly searched for that he was forced to hide himself in the thick woods at his House at Cuttail in Cornwal Here extremity taught him a sudden Policy which was to put a stone in his Cap and tumbled the same into the water while these Persuers were fast at his heels who looking down after the noise and seeing his Cap swimming thereon supposed that he had desperately drowned himself and deluded by this honest fraud gave over their farther persuit leaving him at liberty to escape over into France XL. A Second is of one John Thornborough preferred by Queen Elizabeth to be Dean of York and Bishop of Lymerick in Ireland where he received a most remarkable deliverance in manner following Lodging in an Old Castle in Ireland in a large room partitioned but with Sheets or Curtains with his Wife Children and Servants in effect a whole Family These all lying upon the ground on Matts or such like in the dead time of the night the Floor over head being Earth and Plaister as in many places is used and overcharged with weight fell wholly down together and crushing all to pieces that was above two foot high as Cup-board Table Forms Stools rested at last on certain Chests as God would have it and hurt no living Creature He was after made Bishop of Worcester by King James XLI A Third Relation is concerning Sir Richard Edgcomb who fighting valiantly for the King at Edghil Battle received twenty six wounds and was left on the ground among the dead Next day his Son Adrian Scroop obtained leave of the King to find and fetch off his Fathers Corps and his hopes pretended no higher than a decent interment thereof Such a search was thought in vain amongst many naked bodies with wounds disguised from themselves and where pale death had confounded all Complexions together However he having some general notice of the place where his Father fell did meet with his Body that had some heat left therein which with rubbing within a few Minutes increased to motion that motion within some few hours into sense that sense within a day into speech that speech within certain weeks into a perfect recovery living more than Ten Years after a Monument of God's Mercy and his Sons Affection The Effect of this story I received from his own mouth in Lincoln Colledge Fuller's Worthies Page 151. 175. 274. XLII In the Year 1568 upon the Eve of All Saints by the swelling of the Sea there was so great a deluge as covered certain Islands of Zealand a great part of the Sea-Coast of Holland and almost all Friezland in which Province alone Two Thousand persons were drowned many men who had got up to the tops of Hills and Trees were ready to starve for hunger but were in time saved by Boats Among the rest upon an Hill by Sneace they found an Infant carried thither by the water in its Cradle with a Cat lying by it the poor Babe was soundly sleeping without any fear and then happily saved Strada XLIII William of Nassau Prince of Orange as he lay in his Camp near the Duke of Alva's Army some Spaniards in the night broke into his Camp and some of them run as far as the Prince of Orange's Tent where he lay fast asleep He had a Dog lying by him on his Bed that never left barking nor scratching of him on the face till he had awakened him and by this means he escaped the danger Strada XLIV In the Earthquake of Apulia in Italy which happened in 1627 on the last day of July one writeth That in the City of St. Severine alone Ten Thousand Souls were taken out of the World and that in the horror of such infinite ruines and Sepulchre of so many Mortals a great Bell thrown out oâ— the Steeple by the Earthquake fell so fitly over a child that it inclosed him and doing him no harm made a Bulwark for him against any other danger And who ballanced the motion of this Metal but the same fingers that distended the Heavens even the Almighty Providence of God Causin's Holy Court Tom. 3. XLV Mr. Lermouth alias Williamson Chaplain to the Lady Anne of Cleve a Scotchman being cast into Prison for the Protestant Religion as he was on a time meditating he heard a voice probably of an Angel saying to him Arise and go thy wayes whereunto when he gave no great heed at the first he heard the voice a second time upon this he fell to his Prayers and about half an hour after he heard a voice the third time speaking the same words whereupon rising up immediately part of the Prison Wall fell down and as the Officers came in at the outward Gate of the Prison he went out at the breach leaped over the Prison Ditch and in his way meeting a Beggar he changed his Coat with him and coming to the Sea shore he found a Vessel ready to set Sail into which he entred and escaped Clarks Examples Vol. 1. Pag. 18. XLVI Richard White and John Hunt being apprehended by the Mayor of Marlborough in Queen Marie's Reign they were sent to Salisbury and kept a long time in Lollard's Tower and at last were brought before Bishop Capon and other Commissioners and there examined of their faith of which they made a stout and zealous Confession from which they could not be removed neither by frowns nor flatteries so that at length they were Condemned at the Sessions to dye and with other Malefactors were delivered over to Sir Anthony Hungerford the High Sheriff to be Executed But the Evening after Mr. Clifford Son in Law to Sir Anthony came to him exhorting and intreating him earnestly in no case to have a hand in the death of those two innocent persons Sir Anthony hearing him went presently to one Justice Brown to ask advice who told him that if he had not a Writ from above for their Execution he could not answer the doing it but if he had he must then do his Office The Sheriff hearing this took his Horse the next day and went out of Town leaving these men in Prison Dr. Jefferies the Bishop's Chancellor hearing of it rides after him and overtaking him told him He had delivered two Condemned men into his hands and wondred that he went away before he had Executed them according to his Office The Sheriff told him He was no Babe to be taught what belonged to his Office If you have said he a Wit to discharge me for the burning of them I know what I have to do Why said the Chancellor did not I give you a Writ