ar on a certain night. Raleigh had prepared a letter,
entreating Cobham to clear him at all costs. This letter Cotterell tied
round an apple, and at eight o'clock at night threw it dexterously into
Cobham's room; half an hour afterwards a second letter, of still more
complete retractation, was pushed by Cobham under his door. This Raleigh
hid in his pocket and showed to no one.

Thus October passed, and during these ten weeks the popular fury against
the accused had arisen to a tumultuous pitch. On November 5, Sir W. Waad
was instructed to bring Raleigh out of the Tower, and prepare him for
his trial. As has been said, the plague was in London, and the prisoner
was therefore taken down to Winchester, to be tried in Wolvesey Castle.
So terrible was the popular hatred of Raleigh, that the conveyance of
him was attended with difficulty, and had to be constantly delayed. 'It
was hob or nob whether he should have been brought alive through such
multitudes of unruly people as did exclaim against him;' and to escape
Lynch law a whole week had to be given to the transit. 'The fury and
tumult of the people was so great' that Waad had to set watches, and
hasten his prisoner by a stage at a time, when the mob was not expecting
him. The wretched people seemed to forget all about the plague for the
moment, so eager were they to tear Raleigh to pieces. When he had
reached Winchester, it was thought well to wait five days more, to give
the popular fury time to quiet down a little. A Court of King's Bench
was fitted up in the castle, an old Episcopal palace, not well suited
for that purpose.

On Thursday, November 17, 1603, Raleigh's trial began. In the centre of
the upper part of the court, under a canopy of brocade, sat the Lord
Chief Justice of England, Popham, and on either side of him, as special
commissioners, Cecil, Waad, the Earls of Suffolk and Devonshire, with
the judges, Anderson, Gawdy, and Warburton, and other persons of
distinction. Opposite Popham sat the Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke,
who conducted the trial. It was actually opened, however, by Hale, the
Serjeant, who attempted, as soon as Raleigh had pleaded 'not guilty' to
the indictment, to raise an unseemly laugh by saying that Lady Arabella
'hath no more title to the Crown than I have, which, before God, I
utterly renounce.' Raleigh was noticed to smile at this, and we can
imagine that his irony would be roused by such buffoonery on an occasion
so serious. The