he
Catholics; and though the King had said, in the face of his welcome to
England, that he should not need them now, he had no intention of
exasperating them. As to Spain, the King was simply waiting for
overtures from Madrid. Raleigh, who was never a politician, saw nothing
of all this, and merely used every opportunity he had of gaining the
King's ear to urge his distasteful projects of a war. On the last
occasion when, so far as we know, Raleigh had an interview with James,
they were both the guests of Raleigh's uncle, Sir Nicholas Carew, at
Bedingfield Park. It would seem that he had already placed in the royal
hands the manuscript of his _Discourse touching War with Spain, and of
the Protecting of the Netherlands_, and he offered to raise two thousand
men at his own expense, and to lead them in person against Spain. James
I. must have found this persistence, especially from a man against whom
he had formed a prejudice, exceedingly galling. No doubt, too, long
familiarity with Queen Elizabeth in the decline of her powers, had given
Raleigh a manner in approaching royalty which was not to James's liking.

In July the King's Catholic troubles reached a head. Watson's plot,
involving Copley and the young Lord Grey de Wilton, occupied the Privy
Council during that month, and it was discovered that George Brooke, a
younger brother of Lord Cobham's, was concerned in it. The Brookes, it
will be remembered, were the brothers-in-law of Cecil himself, but by
this time completely estranged from him. It is more interesting to us
to note that Cobham himself was the only intimate friend left to
Raleigh. With extraordinary rapidity Raleigh himself was drawn into the
net of Watson's misdoings. Copley was arrested on the 6th, and first
examined on July 12. He incriminated George Brooke, who was arrested on
the 14th. Cobham, who was busy on his duties as Lord Warden of the
Cinque Ports, was brought up for examination on the 15th or 16th; and on
the 17th,[9] Sir Walter Raleigh, who, it is said, had given information
regarding Cobham, was himself arrested at Windsor.

Raleigh was walking to and fro on the great terrace at Windsor on the
morning of July 17, 1603, waiting to ride with the King, when Cecil came
to him and requested his presence in the Council Chamber. What happened
there is unknown, but it is plain amid the chaos of conflicting
testimony that Cecil argued that what George Brooke knew Cobham must
know, and that Raleigh wa