Politics & government > Life of Sir Walter Raleigh

TO HIS SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA.
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their power to weaken the ecclesiastical establishment,
for the support of which his rival was so deeply interested.
His information was so secret, that his spies and depend¬
ants were supposed to be as busy on the continent as at
home. He was little scrupulous as to the means em¬
ployed to rid himself of an enemy; and whilst, to shame
the coldness and parsimony of Cecil, he acted as a muni¬
ficent patron of the sciences and learning, he scrupled not
to deal with astrologers, wizards, and poisoners, provided
they lent their dark assistance in the accomplishment
of his designs. Yet all this was done so silently and
circumspectly that no proof could be found against him,
and the thread was lost before it could be traced to the
master-hand which presided within the labyrinth.
“ Many,” says Lloyd, “ fell in his time, who saw not the
hand that pulled them down ; and as many died that
knewnot their own disease.”* At the period when Raleigh
made his appearance at court, Dudley.possessed some of
the highest offices in the kingdom ; but whilst the re¬
putation of Burleigh is permanent, his once potent rival
is now chiefly remembered as the uncle of Sir Philip
Sidney and the patron of Spenser.
At this time another great man at court was Rat-
cliffe, Earl of Sussex and Lord Chamberlain, whose
blunt, open, and martial character came out in striking
relief beside the polished and brilliant personages amongst
whom he moved. His abilities in war were of the high¬
est order, as was repeatedly shown in Ireland ; and al¬
though the rust of the camp and the smoke of battle had
rather besmirched and unfitted him for the office of
chamberlain to a virgin queen, there was an affability
and simplicity in his manners which attracted all honest
men to his party, and enabled him, infinitely inferior as
he was to Leicester in court-policy, to raise a party against
him which had nearly ruined his great enemy, when
Sussex showed the nobleness of mind to plead for a fallen
foe. It was his custom to designate Dudley by the nick-
Lloyd’s State Worthies, p. 519.