As the breach grew between Essex and the Queen, the temper of the former
grew more surly. He dropped the semblance of civility to Raleigh. In
his _Apothegms_, Lord Bacon has preserved an amusing anecdote of
November 17, 1598. On this day, which was the Queen's sixty-fifth
birthday, the leading courtiers, as usual, tilted in the ring in honour
of their Liege; the custom of this piece of mock chivalry demanded that
each knight should be disguised. It was, however, known that Sir Walter
Raleigh would ride in his own uniform of orange tawny medley, trimmed
with black budge of lamb's wool. Essex, to vex him, came to the lists
with a body-guard of two thousand retainers all dressed in orange tawny,
so that Raleigh and his men should seem a fragment of the great Essex
following. The story goes on to show that Essex digged a pit and fell
into it himself; but enough has been said to prove his malignant
intention. We have little else but anecdotes with which to fill up the
gap in Raleigh's career between December 1597 and March 1600. This was
an exceedingly quiet period in his life, during which we have to fancy
him growing more and more at enmity with Essex, and more and more
intimate with Cobham.

In September 1598, an unexpected ally, the Duke of Finland, urged
Raleigh to undertake once more his attempt to colonise Guiana, and
offered twelve ships as his own contingent. Two months later we find
that the hint has been taken, and that Sir John Gilbert is 'preparing
with all speed to make a voyage to Guiana.' It is said, moreover, that
'he intendeth to inhabit it with English people.' He never started,
however, and Raleigh, referring long afterwards to the events of these
years, said that though Cecil seemed to encourage him in his West Indian
projects, yet that when it came to the point he always, as Raleigh
quaintly put it, retired into his back-shop. Meanwhile, the interest
felt in Raleigh's narrative was increasing, and in 1599 the well-known
geographer Levinus Hulsius brought out in Nuremburg a Latin translation
of the _Discovery_, with five curious plates, including one of the city
of Manoa, and another of the Ewaipanoma, or men without heads. The
German version of the book and its English reprint in Hakluyt's
_Navigations_ belong to the same year. Also in 1599, the _Discovery_ was
reproduced in Latin, German, and French by De Bry in the eighth part of
his celebrated _Collectiones Peregrinationum_. This year, then, in which