on a
field where every man that would be helped must help himself, his
wounded leg had shut him out of all hope of plunder. The cause of his
standing so far as ten leagues away from shore was that an epidemic had
broken out on board his ship. It proved impossible to cope with this
disease, and so it was determined that on August 1 the 'War Sprite'
should return to England, in company with the 'Roebuck' and the 'John
and Francis.' On the sixth day they arrived in Plymouth, and Raleigh
found that, although seven weeks had elapsed since the victory, no
authentic account of it had hitherto reached the Council. He was not
well, and instead of posting up to London, where he easily perceived he
would not be welcome, he asked pardon for staying with his ship. On
August 12 he landed at Weymouth, and passed home to Sherborne. The rest
of the fleet came back later in the autumn, and Essex, as he passed the
coast of Portugal, swooped down upon the famous library of the Bishop of
Algarve, which he presented on his return to Sir Thomas Bodley. The
Bodleian Library at Oxford is now the chief existing memorial of that
glorious expedition to Cadiz which shattered the naval strength of
Spain.

As to prize-money, there proved to be very little of it for the captors.
It was understood that the Lord Admiral was to have 5,000_l._, Essex as
much, and Raleigh 3,000_l._; but Essex, in his proud way, waived his
claim in favour of the Queen, just in time to escape spoliation, for
Elizabeth claimed everything. Her scandalous avarice had grown upon her
year by year, and now in her old age her finer and more generous
qualities were sapped by her greed for money. Even her political acumen
had failed her; she was unable to see, in her vexation at the loss of
the Indian carracks, that the blow to Spain had been one which relieved
her of a constant and immense anxiety. She determined that no one should
be the richer or the nobler for a victory which had resulted in the
destruction of so much treasure which might have flowed into her
coffers. Deeply disappointed at the Queen's surly ingratitude, Raleigh,
whom she still refused to see, retired for the next nine months into
absolute seclusion at Sherborne.

In his retirement Raleigh continued to remember that his function was,
as Oldys put it, 'by his extraordinary undertakings to raise a grove of
laurels, in a manner out of the seas, that should overspread our island
with glory.' In October 1596 he was