Ralegh paused: up till now he had been speaking to the Court and to the jury, quietly replying to the charges that had been brought against him. Now he turned to Sir Edward Coke, the King's Attorney, and made this speech, magnificent in its effect even in the version of the reporter, even after more than three hundred years, now when no one feels anything but great friendliness towards Spain; you can see the man draw himself up to his full height, the man who had risked his life for his country--Spain's most dreadful enemy, as he faced the attorney whose business it was to brow-beat him to ruin. "Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my Lord Cobham you speak as you will of him; yet he is not such a babe as you make him. He hath dispositions of such violence, which his best friends could never temper. But it is very strange that I, at this time, should be thought to plot with the Lord Cobham knowing him a man that hath neither love nor following; and myself, at this time having resigned a place of my best command, in an office I had in Cornwall. I was not so bare of sense but I saw that, if even this State was strong, it was now that we have the kingdom of Scotland united whence we were wont to fear all our troubles; Ireland quieted where our forces were wont to be divided; Denmark assured whom before we were always wont to have in jealousy; the Low Countries our nearest neighbours. And, instead of a Lady whom Time had surprised, we had now an active King who would be present at his own businesses. For me at this time to make myself a Robin Hood, a Watt Tyler, a Kett, or a Jack Cade! I was not so mad! I knew the state of Spain well--his weakness, his poorness, his humbleness at this time. I knew that six times we had repulsed his forces: thrice in Ireland, thrice at sea--once upon our coast, twice upon his own. Thrice had I served against him myself at sea, wherein for my Country's sake, I had expended of my own property forty thousand marks. I knew that where beforetime he was wont to have forty great sails, at the least, in his ports, now he hath not past six or seven. But for sending to his Indies, he was driven to have strange vessels--a thing contrary to the institutions of his ancestors who straitly forbade that, even in case of necessity, they should make their necessity known to strangers. I knew that of twenty-five millions which he had from his Indies, he had scarce any left. Nay, I knew his poorness to be such at this time, as that the Jesuits, his imps, begged at his church-doors; his pride so abated that, notwithstanding his former high terms, he was become glad to congratulate His Majesty and send unto him. Whoso knew what great assurances he stood upon with other States, for smaller sums, would not think he would so freely disburse to my Lord Cobham six hundred thousand crowns! And, if I had minded to set my Lord Cobham awork in such a case, I would have given him some instructions how to persuade the King. For I