ies in the West, were pursued on
Saturday by other messengers with contrary orders.

The change of purpose, however, was itself promptly altered, and the
original policy reverted to. The Earl of Essex was joined in commission
with the Lord Admiral Howard, and as a council of war to act with these
personages were named Sir Walter Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard. The
Dutch were to contribute a fleet to act with England. It is an
interesting fact that now for the first time the experience and naval
skill of Raleigh received their full recognition. From the very first he
was treated with the highest consideration. Howard wrote to Cecil on
April 16--and Essex on the 28th used exactly the same words--'I pray
you, hasten away Sir Walter Raleigh.' They fretted to be gone, and
Raleigh was not to be found; malignant spirits were not wanting to
accuse him of design in his absence, of a wish to prove himself
indispensable. But fortunately we possess his letters, and we see that
he was well and appropriately occupied. In the previous November he had
sent in to the Lords of the Council a very interesting report on the
defences of Cornwall and Devon, which he had reason to suppose that
Spain meant to attack. He considered that three hundred soldiers
successfully landed at Plymouth would be 'sufficient to endanger and
destroy the whole shire,' and he discussed the possibility of levying
troops from the two counties to be a mutual protection. It was doubtless
his vigour and ability in performing this sort of work which led to his
being selected as the chief purveyor of levies for the Cadiz expedition,
and this was what he was doing in the spring of 1596, when the creatures
of Essex whispered to one another that he was malingering.

On May 3, he wrote to Cecil: 'I am not able to live, to row up and down
every tide from Gravesend to London, and he that lies here at Ratcliff
can easily judge when the rest, and how the rest, of the ships may sail
down.' And again, from a lower point of the Thames, at Blackwall, he is
still waiting for men and ships that will not come, and is 'more grieved
than ever I was, at anything in this world, for this cross weather.'

Through the month of May, we may trace Raleigh hard at work, recruiting
for the Cadiz expedition round the southern coast, of England. On the
4th he is at Northfleet, disgusted to find how little her Majesty's
authority is respected, for 'as fast as we press men one day, they come
away