Elizabeth's day, the intrigues of the English refugees abroad. They were also connected, in a very curious way, with some of the undercurrents of that Munster rebellion in the suppression of which Ralegh had won his spurs. The fanatic Stucley, who fell beside Don Sebastian at the bloody battle of Alcazar- | quivir (22 Sept. 1578), was just about to have led a force into Ireland, under the patronage of the Pope, which was to dethrone Queen Elizabeth and to provide Ireland with an Italian king. Sebastian induced him first to make a little episodical excursion against the Moors. And thus, instead of putting an Italian on the throne of Ireland, Sir Thomas Stucley helped to put Philip the Second on the throne of Portugal. SIR, I HAVE perused this translated storie of the Conquest of Portugall and the Warrs of Africa, and have corrected some things therein. For the rest, I see nothing in the booke but what may well passe, if your Honnor please to give allowance thereof; which I humblie desire, in favor of the translator. And so do take my leave. From Dirrham House, the xvth of March, 1599 [legal style]. Addressed: Your Honor's to do yow service, W. RALEGH. To the right honorable Sir ROBERT CECYLL, Knight, Her Majesties Endorsed: Principall Secretary. 15 March, '99. Sir Walter Ralegh to my Master. LXXXVIII. TO SECRETARY SIR ROBERT CECIL. From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. lxxviii. § 7 (Hatfield). Holograph. LETTER LXXXVIII. 1600. To Sir [From SIR, BECAUSE I know that yow cann receve no pleasinger March 27. newse from hence then to here of your beloved creture,1 I thought good to lett you know of his good health; and whereas I wrat in my last that hee was a littell trobled with a looseness, I thanck God he is no freed therof; and, I assure yow, better in health and strenght then ever I knew hyme. His stomake, that was heretofore weake, is altogether amended, and he douth now eat well and digest rightly. I hope this aire will agree exceedingly with hyme. He is also better keipt to his Account of the improved health of William Cecil, then a visitor at Sherborne. booke then any wher elce. 1 William Cecil, eldest son of Sir Robert, and afterwards second Earl of Salisbury. To this nobleman Sir Walter long afterwards dedicated the first (and, as it proved, the only) portion of his intended Brief History of England (“I intend, by the help of God and your furtherance, right noble Earl of Salisbury, to write a Brief History," &c.)-—words which Oldys, by an oversight not usual with him, has spoken of as addressed to Robert Cecil, first Earl. Earl William served King Charles the First as an Ambassador Extraordinary (to the Court of France), and, as is well known, sat-in company with the Earl of Pembroke - in the Long Parliamer, during the Interregnum. But he was of a cautious temperament, and seems to have been nearly as fond of retirement as his famous father was of business. He survived, by almost eight years, the restoration of King Charles the Second; enjoying his earldom for the unusual period of fiftysix years. Men who lived far into the Georgian era' of our history may well have heard Lord Salisbury's reminiscences of Ralegh from his own lips. 2 This is all I can say from this poore place, and that I LETTER am ever your poorest and trewest frind and sarvent, LXXXVIII. This 27 of March [1600]. W. RALEGH. 1600. March 27. Addressed: "To the right honorable Mr. Secretary." Endorsed: "27 March, 1600. Sir Walter Ralegh to my Master." LXXXIX. TO HENRY BROOKE, LORD COBHAM. From the Original. Domestic Correspondence: Elizabeth. (Unarranged I CANNE write your Lordshipp nothing from hence, butt 1 Meaning the government of Jersey. * Sir Alexander Brett; after 1603, one of Lady Ralegh's trustees. your Lordship in the mind to cum to the If your Lord-hipp receve awnswere that BATES' Is taken up, it i butt for me; and your Lordship the on? half notwithstanding. I am wher2 I can do your Lordship no services. I will not, therefore, ith idell words in which I can butt profess hat I would more willingly execute; till when, and r Lordship's absolutely to comande, your W. RALLGH. I beseich your Lordship to remember me to the Lord THIMAS (H /WAKD 6 of Aprill, att night. Lorde, the Lord Cob'lam. XC. TO SECRETARY SIR ROBERT CECIL. From the Orginal. il Papers, vol. xxviii. § 83 Hatfield. In the hani cf an amanuensis. Subscribed and signed. Ir maie please your Honor, I am much importuned by my cosen. Mr. HENRY CAREW, to desire your fauvor towards his distressed sonne, that his enlargement out of prison maie be procured by good bonds, sufficient sureties, or by anie other meanes that were possible. 3 In the issue this business proved to be a difficult and protracted one. Young Carew seems to have remained several years in confinement, or at least under restraint. There are many letters at Hatfield which relate to the long treaty for his liberation. Those of them which I have read do not explain the nature of his offence, but I infer from them that it was of a political sort. In Elizabethan days the need of a Habeas Corpus was onetimes much greater than in the worst of the Stuart days. And this branch of the Carews was recusant.' XC. 1600. April 21. The gentleman offereth £1,000 caution, or a greater LETTER sume, if it maie be accepted, to have his sonne out upon anie condicions that shalbe required; and his earnest solicitation importuneth me to move you to direct what course you shall thinke fytt in your honorable wisedome. And so do humblie take my leave. From Sherborn Lodg, the 21th of Aprill, 1600. Your Honor's to do yow service, In favour of the son of Henry Carew, then under imprisonment. W. RALEGH. Addressed: To the right honorable Sir ROBERT CECYLL, Knight, Her Majesties Endorsed: Principall Secretary. 1600. xxith April. Sir Walter Ralegh to my Master. In favour of Mr. Harry Carye. XCI. TO HENRY BROOKE, LORD COBHAM. From the Original. Domestic Correspondence: Elizabeth. (Unarranged *The purposed journey of Lord Cobham to Bath to meet Ralegh, which forms the subject of this brief note, is alluded to more than once in the letters of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sydney, written in the spring of 1600; and he also speaks often of Cobham's great favour with the Queen; of which indeed the proofs, otherwise, are ample. After the wont of courtly favour, it had its partial eclipses. A fortnight later than the date of Ralegh's present letter, Rowland Whyte : writes: "My Lord Cobham stays from going to the Bathe, and purposes with all the strength and credit he hath to get an estate in Otford Park." For this park, Sir Robert Sydney was also a suitor; and Whyte adds that the Lord Treasurer |