ul be,
And, 'neath the blasting blaze of light, _meet me!_

* * * * *

PERSONS AND PICTURES FROM THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT.

NO. I.--SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND HIS WIFE.

It is commonly said, and appears generally to be believed by superficial
students of history, that with the reigns of the Plantagenets, with the
Edwards and the Henrys of the fifteenth century, the age of chivalry was
ended, the spirit of romance became extinct. To those, however, who have
looked carefully into the annals of the long and glorious reign of the
great Elizabeth, it becomes evident that, so far from having passed away
with the tilt and tournament, with the complete suits of knightly armor,
and the perilous feats of knight-errantry, the fire of chivalrous courtesy
and chivalrous adventure never blazed more brightly, than at the very
moment when it was about to expire amid the pedantry and cowardice, the low
gluttony and shameless drunkenness, which disgraced the accession of the
first James to the throne of England. Nor will the brightest and most
glorious names of fabulous or historic chivalry, the Tancreds and Godfreys
of the crusades, the Oliviers and Rolands of the court of Charlemagne, the
Old Campeador of old Castile, or the _preux_ Bayard of France, that
_chevalier sans peur et sans reproche_, exceed the lustre which encircles,
to this day, the characters of Essex, Howard, Philip Sidney, Drake,
Hawkins, Frobisher, and Walter Raleigh.

It was full time that, at this period, maritime adventure had superseded
the career of the barded war-horse, and the brunt of the leveled spear; and
that to foray on the Spanish colonies, beyond the line, where, it was said,
truce or peace never came; to tempt the perils of the tropical seas in
search of the Eldorado, or the Fountain of Health and Youth, in the fabled
and magical realms of central Florida; and to colonize the forest shores of
the virgin wildernesses of the west, was now paramount in the ardent minds
of England's martial youth, to the desire of obtaining distinction in the
bloody battle-fields of the Low Countries, or in the fierce religious wars
of Hungary and Bohemia. And of these hot spirits, the most ardent, the most
adventurous, the foremost in everything that savored of romance or
gallantry, was the world-renowned Sir Walter Raleigh.

Born of an honorable and ancient family in Devonshire, he early came to
London, in order