ber 7 we find Harvey sending Raleigh's private
letters by a man of the name of Mellersh, who had been Cobham's steward
and was now his secretary. Raleigh and Cobham had become convinced that,
whatever was their innocence or guilt, it was absolutely necessary that
each should have some idea what the other was confessing.

On September 21, Raleigh, Cobham, and George Brooke were indicted at
Staines. The indictment shows us for the first time what the Government
had determined to accuse Raleigh of plotting. It is plainly put that he
is charged with 'exciting rebellion against the King, and raising one
Arabella Stuart to the Crown of England.' Without going into vexed
questions of the claim of this unhappy woman, we may remind ourselves
that Arabella Stuart was James I.'s first cousin, the daughter of
Charles Stuart, fifth Earl of Lennox, Darnley's elder brother. Her
father had died in 1576, soon after her birth. About 1588 she had come
up to London to be presented to Elizabeth, and on that occasion had
amused Raleigh with her gay accomplishments. The legal quibble on which
her claim was founded was the fact that she was born in England, whereas
James as a Scotchman was supposed to be excluded. Arabella was no
pretender; her descent from Margaret, the sister of Henry VIII., was
complete, and if James had died childless and she had survived him, it
is difficult to see how her claim could have been avoided in favour of
the Suffolk line. Meantime she had no real claim, and no party in the
country. But Elizabeth, in one of her fantastic moods, had presented
Arabella to the wife of a French ambassador, as 'she that will sometime
be Lady Mistress here, even as I am.' Before the Queen's death
Arabella's very name had become hateful to her, but this was the slender
ground upon which Cobham's, but scarcely Raleigh's, hopes were based.

The jury was well packed with adverse names. The precept is signed by
Raleigh's old and bitter enemy, Lord Howard of Bindon, now Earl of
Suffolk. The trial, probably on account of the terror caused by the
ravages of the plague, was adjourned for nearly two months, which
Raleigh spent in the Tower. Almost the only remnant of all his great
wealth which was not by this time forfeited, was his cluster of estates
at Sherborne. He attempted to tie these up to his son, and his brother,
Adrian Gilbert, and Cecil appears to have been a friend to Lady Raleigh
in this matter. It was so generally taken for grante