ple, created of God, and might have been won to his
knowledge, as many of them were.' 'Who, therefore, would repose trust in
such a nation of ravenous strangers, and especially in these Spaniards,
who more greedily thirst after English blood than after the lives of any
other people in Europe;' 'whose weakness we have discovered to the
world.' Historians, with whom Ralegh has never been a favourite, treat
as merely dishonest rhetoric the compassion he now and again expressed
for the millions of innocent men, women, and children, branded, roasted,
mangled, ripped alive, by Spaniards, though as free by nature as any
Christians. There is no just reason to think him insincere. The pity
gave dignity and a tone of chivalry to his more local feeling,
Protestant, political, commercial, of hatred and jealousy of Spain.
Spain, he declared, was ever conspiring against us. She had bought the
aid of Denmark, Norway, the French Parliament-towns, the Irish and
Scotch malcontents. She threatened the foundations of English liberty of
thought. She tried to starve the rising English instinct for territorial
expansion. He summoned Englishmen eager for foreign trade to protest
against the Spanish embargo, which everywhere they encountered. He
pointed out to them, as they began to feel the appetite for wealth, the
colonial treasury of Spain glittering in full view before them.

A multitude of Englishmen, especially in Ralegh's own country of the
West, were conscious of all this. Ralegh gave the sentiment a voice in
his story of his cousin's gallant death. Henceforth he never ceased to
consecrate his energies and influence directly to the work of lowering
the flag of Spain, and replacing it by that of England. From the
beginning of his career he had been a labourer in this field. He now
asserted his title to be the champion of his nation. Previously he had
usually striven by deputy. Now he was to display his personal prowess as
a warrior and a great captain. For years he was to be seen battling with
Philip's empire by sea and land, plundering his merchantmen, storming
his strongholds, bursting through his frontiers, and teaching Englishmen
to think that sheer usurpation which for Spaniards was right divine. His
own countrymen did not at first accept his leadership. They affirmed his
principle, but preferred that others than he should have the primary
honour of applying it. Gradually competitors dropped off; and he
remained. Through popular odiu