re to have it,' was Raleigh's answer; and he continued, 'Dost thou
know, Peter, any plaister that will set a man's head on again, when it
is off?'

When he came before Yelverton, he attempted to argue that the Guiana
commission had wiped out all the past, including the sentence of 1603.
He began to discuss anew his late voyage; but the Chief Justice,
interrupting him, told him that he was to be executed for the old
treason, not for this new one. Raleigh then threw himself on the King's
mercy, being every way trapped and fettered; without referring to this
appeal, the Chief Justice proceeded to award execution. Raleigh was to
be beheaded early next morning in Old Palace Yard. He entreated for a
few days' respite, that he might finish some writings, but the King had
purposely left town that no petitions for delay might reach him. Bacon
produced the warrant, which he had drawn up, and which bore the King's
signature and the Great Seal.

Raleigh was taken from Westminster Hall to the Gate House. He was in
high spirits, and meeting his old friend Sir Hugh Beeston, he urged him
to secure a good place at the show next morning. He himself, he said,
was sure of one. He was so gay and chatty, that his cousin Francis
Thynne begged him to be more grave lest his enemies should report his
levity. Raleigh answered, 'It is my last mirth in this world; do not
grudge it to me.' Dr. Tounson, Dean of Westminster, to whom Raleigh was
a stranger, then attended him; and was somewhat scandalised at this flow
of mercurial spirits. 'When I began,' says the Dean, 'to encourage him
against the fear of death, he seemed to make so light of it that I
wondered at him. When I told him that the dear servants of God, in
better causes than his, had shrunk back and trembled a little, he denied
it not. But yet he gave God thanks that he had never feared death.' The
good Dean was puzzled; but his final reflection was all to Raleigh's
honour. After the execution he reported that 'he was the most fearless
of death that ever was known, and the most resolute and confident; yet
with reverence and conscience.'

It was late on Thursday evening, the 28th, that Lady Raleigh learned the
position of affairs. She had not dreamed that the case was so hopeless.
She hastened to the Gate House, and until midnight husband and wife were
closeted together in conversation, she being consoled and strengthened
by his calm. Her last word was that she had obtained permission to