l contributions were required. In
the _Domestic Correspondence_ we meet with the names of the chief of
these vessels, 'The Revenge,' soon afterwards so famous, 'The Crane,'
and 'The Garland.' These ships were merchantmen or men-of-war at will,
and their exploits were winked at or frowned upon at Court as
circumstances dictated. Sometimes the hawk's eye of Elizabeth would
sound the holds of these pirates with incredible acumen, as on that
occasion when it is recorded that 'a waistcoat of carnation colour,
curiously embroidered,' which was being brought home to adorn the person
of the adventurer, was seized by order of the Queen to form a stomacher
for his royal mistress. It would be difficult to say which of the
illustrious pair was the more solicitous of fine raiment. At other times
the whole prize had to be disgorged; as in the case of that bark of
Olonne, laden with barley, which Raleigh had to restore to the Treasury
on July 21, 1589, after he had concluded a very lucrative sale of the
same.

In August 1589 Sir Francis Allen wrote to Anthony Bacon: 'My Lord of
Essex hath chased Mr. Raleigh from the Court, and hath confined him to
Ireland.' It is true that Raleigh himself, five months later, being
once more restored to favour, speaks of 'that nearness to her Majesty
which I still enjoy,' and directly contradicts the rumour of his
disgrace. This, however, is not in accordance with the statement made by
Spenser in his poem of _Colin Clout's come home again_, in which he says
that all Raleigh's speech at this time was

Of great unkindness and of usage hard
Of Cynthia, the Lady of the Sea,
Which from her presence faultless him debarred,

and this may probably be considered as final evidence. At all events,
this exile from Court, whether it was enforced or voluntary, brought
about perhaps the most pleasing and stimulating episode in the whole of
Raleigh's career, his association with the great poet whose lines have
just been quoted.

We have already seen that, eight years before this, Spenser and Raleigh
had met under Lord Grey in the expedition that found its crisis at
Smerwick. We have no evidence of the point of intimacy which they
reached in 1582, nor of their further acquaintance before 1589. It has
been thought that Raleigh's picturesque and vivid personality
immediately and directly influenced Spenser's imagination. Dean Church
has noticed that to read Hooker's account of 'Raleigh's adventures w