Such were Ralegh's last recorded words before the verdict was given. He had said all that was to be said. He had stood his ground undismayed for many hours, though the chief men in England and the cleverest lawyers in England were set against him. He must gradually have realized that all were resolute to condemn him: he must gradually have realized that all his efforts were futile against such malignant opposition. The King's Attorney alleged that the last letter was politicly and cunningly urged from the Lord Cobham, and the first was simply the truth. The Earl of Devonshire assured the Lord Chief Justice that Cobham had written the first letter of his own free will, uninfluenced by any hope or promise of pardon. A marshal was sworn to keep the jury private. The jury retired. In less than a quarter of an hour the jury returned and gave their verdict. The verdict was _GUILTY_. "Sir Walter Ralegh," said the Clerk of the Crown, "thou hast been indicted, arraigned, and pleaded _not guilty_, for all these several treasons and for trial thereof hast put thyself upon thy country, which country are these who have found thee guilty. What canst thou say for thyself why judgment and execution of death should not pass against thee?" And Ralegh, now doomed, made answer, "My Lords, the jury have found me guilty, they must do as they are directed. I can say nothing why judgment should not proceed. You see whereof Cobham hath accused me: you remember his protestations that I was never guilty...." And later he said, "I submit myself to the king's mercy. I know his mercy is greater than my offence. I recommend my wife, and son of tender years, unbrought-up, to his compassion." And then the Lord Chief Justice Popham rose to deliver judgment, which he prefaced by a pompous and insulting speech. "I thought I should never have seen this day, to have stood in this place to give sentence of death against you; because I thought it impossible that one of so great parts should have fallen so grievously. God hath bestowed on you many benefits. You had been a man fit and able to have served the king in good place--you have brought yourself into a good state of living.... It is best for man not to seek to climb too high, lest he fall; nor yet to creep too low lest he be trodden on....