Thus Ralegh was overthrown, who, if the time had been ripe, might have proved a Mirabeau to England, and saved the country from Civil War and the destructive power of the Puritans, which eventually became necessary to purge England from the mischief of weak rulers with absolute power, kings who could not carry on the tradition of the great Elizabeth. In very truth, with Elizabeth, as de Thou said of Catherine, not a woman but royalty died. CHAPTER XVII THE LONG IMPRISONMENT Ralegh's efforts to avert complete ruin--True greatness--Keeps in touch with life--First two years--The history--The first sentence--Reasons for incompleteness--James's dislike of the work--Its greatness. Such things happened in actual life at the beginning of the seventeenth century. There was the same fantastic blending in life of melodrama and farce and poetry as was shown upon the stage. Beaumont and Fletcher, wild and exaggerated as they often appear, gave as faithful a picture of the life around them as Bernard Shaw gives of modern life; and in some ways they gave a more faithful picture, for they had no principle which they desired to inculcate, and a principle, though it is a fine stimulant, is apt to be a sad distortioner. There exactly lies the salient point of contrast between that century and modern times. Life then was confined and intense--with limitless possibilities. The pageant passed compact, and yet in gorgeous disarray. Art was informed by its positive spirit; glowed with animation at its touch. Life has become vast and voluminous; its horizon seems limited, as though for a time it had outgrown its strength, and was sprawling. The pageant crawls by in its interminable length, and yet in dully determined order. Art lives by battling against its dreadful hold--the hold that slowly fastens and stifles with its long, persistent tentacles. The apathy of convention gradually settled, like an obscuring mist, but new knowledge is scattering the mist like a wind, and knowledge brings new responsibilities and fresh life and fresh light. The sun peers through the clouds, and the sun will lend warmth and colour to the pageant. But such things happened at the beginning of the seventeenth century in actual life. That farce at the scaffold was the first manifestation that King James gave in England of his royal power. Ralegh was taken from Winchester to the Tower on December 16. His future life was now dreadfully apparent to him. His lot was confinement. But not yet was his indomitable spirit of life dead. Crushed he felt and pinioned, but still he was obliged to strain every nerve to force all that could be forced from the life that henceforward awaited him. He could not submit in proud, becoming silence, as a fabled hero would undoubtedly have done, and as the code of present honour would have him submit--a code which, it is well to remember, is considerably assisted in its conduct by the press.