fold, he prepared himself for death, gave away his hat
and cap, and money to some attendants that stood near him. When he
took leave of the lords, and other gentlemen that stood near him, he
entreated the Lord Arundel to prevail with the King that no scandalous
writings to defame him, should be published after his death;
concluding, "I have a long journey to go, and therefore will take my
leave." Then having put off his gown and doublet, he called to the
executioner to shew him the axe, which not being presently done; he
said, "I pray thee let me see it; don't thou think I am afraid of it;"
and having it in his hands he felt along the edge of it, and smiling,
said to the sheriff; "This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician
for all diseases." The executioner kneeling down and asking him
forgiveness, Sir Walter laying his hand upon his shoulder granted
it; and being asked which way he would lay himself on the block, he
answered, "So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head
lies." His head was struck off at two blows, his body never shrinking
nor moving. His head was shewn on each side of the scaffold, and then
put into a red leather bag, and with his velvet night-gown thrown
over, was afterwards conveyed away in a mourning coach of his lady's.
His body was interred in the chancel of St. Margaret's Church,
Westminster, but his head was long preserved in a case by his widow,
who survived him twenty-years.

Thus fell Sir Walter Raleigh in the 66th year of his age, a sacrifice
to a contemptible administration, and the resentment of a mean prince:
A man of so great abilities, that neither that nor the preceding reign
produced his equal. His character was a combination of almost every
eminent quality; he was the soldier, statesmen, and scholar united,
and had he lived with the heroes of antiquity, he would have made a
just parallel to Caesar, and Xenophon, like them being equal master of
the sword and the pen. One circumstance must not be omitted, which in
a life so full of action as his, is somewhat extraordinary, viz.
that whether he was on board his ships upon important and arduous
expeditions, busy in court transactions, or pursuing schemes of
pleasure, he never failed to dedicate at least four hours every day
to study, by which he became so much master of all knowledge, and was
enabled, as a poet beautifully expresses it, to enrich the world with
his prison-hours[13]. As the sentence of Raleigh blackens