ning of 'this cross weather.' 'I am not able to live to row up
and down with every tide from Gravesend to London.' At length on the 6th
of May, 1592, the fleet was under sail with him on board. On the 7th, he
was overtaken by Frobisher with orders to come back. He was to leave Sir
John Burgh, Borough, or Brough, and Frobisher to command as his
lieutenants. Choosing to construe the orders as optional in date, Ralegh
proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre. Thence, after weathering a terrific
storm on May 11, he himself returned. Before his departure he arranged
the plan of operations. Half the fleet he stationed under Frobisher off
the Spanish coast to distract the attention of the Spaniards. The rest
he sent to watch for the treasure fleet at the Azores. For an attack on
Panama the season was too late.

CHAPTER X.

IN THE TOWER. THE GREAT CARACK. (1592).

[Sidenote: _Elizabeth Throckmorton._]

Immediately on his return, if not before, he understood the reason of
his recall. He had written to Cecil on March 10: 'I mean not to come
away, as they say I will, for fear of a marriage, and I know not what.
If any such thing were, I should have imparted it unto yourself before
any man living; and therefore, I pray, believe it not, and I beseech you
to suppress, what you can, any such malicious report. For, I protest,
there is none on the face of the earth that I would be fastened unto.'
As soon as he reached London in June, he was thrown into the Tower. He
had seemed before to be enjoying the plenitude of royal favour. So
lately as in January it had been shown by the grant of a fine estate in
Dorset. No official record is discoverable of the cause of his
imprisonment. Disobedience to the order to quit the fleet would have
been a sufficient pretext. It was not mentioned. The imprisonment was a
domestic punishment within her own fortress-palace, inflicted by the
Queen as head of her household. The true reason was his courtship of
Elizabeth, daughter to the Queen's devoted but turbulent servant and
confidant, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. He had died in 1571, at the age of
fifty-seven, in Leicester's house. His eldest son, Nicholas, was adopted
by a maternal uncle, the last Carew of Beddington, and became Sir
Nicholas Carew. Elizabeth Throckmorton, who had as many cousins in high
positions as Ralegh, was appointed a maid of honour. Her portrait
proves her to have been handsome. She was tall, slender, blue-eyed and
golden-hair