h he himself was
wearing, he threw it to him, saying, 'Friend, you need this more than I
do.' Raleigh was dressed in a black embroidered velvet night-gown over a
hare-coloured satin doublet and a black embroidered waistcoat. He wore
a ruff-band, a pair of black cut taffetas breeches, and ash-coloured
silk stockings, thus combining his taste for magnificence with a decent
regard for the occasion. The multitude so pressed upon him, and he had
walked with such an animated step, that when he ascended the scaffold,
erect and smiling, he was observed to be quite out of breath.

There are many contemporary reports of Sir Walter Raleigh's deportment
at this final moment of his life. In the place of these hackneyed
narratives, we may perhaps quote the less-known words of another
bystander, the republican Sir John Elyot, who was at that time a young
man of twenty-eight. In his _Monarchy of Man_, which remained in
manuscript until 1879, Elyot says:

Take an example in that else unmatched fortitude of our Raleigh,
the magnanimity of his sufferings, that large chronicle of
fortitude. All the preparations that are terrible presented to
his eye, guards and officers about him, fetters and chains upon
him, the scaffold and executioner before him, and then the axe,
and more cruel expectation of his enemies, and what did all that
work on the resolution of that worthy? Made it an impression of
weak fear, or a distraction of his reason? Nothing so little did
that great soul suffer, but gathered more strength and advantage
upon either. His mind became the clearer, as if already it had
been freed from the cloud and oppression of the body, and that
trial gave an illustration to his courage, so that it changed
the affection of his enemies, and turned their joy into sorrow,
and all men else it filled with admiration, leaving no doubt but
this, whether death was more acceptable to him, or he more
welcome unto death.

At the windows of Sir Randolph Carew, which were opposite to the
scaffold, Raleigh observed a cluster of gentlemen and noblemen, and in
particular several of those who had been adventurers with him for the
mine on the Orinoco. He perceived, amongst others, the Earls of Arundel,
Oxford, and Northampton. That these old friends should hear distinctly
what he had to say was his main object, and he therefore addressed them
with an apology for the weakness of his voice, and