The position, however, suddenly changed. Cecil died. Car was sent to the Tower for complicity in the poisoning of Overbury. Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton died, the bitterest of Ralegh's enemies. Sir Ralph Winwood, who was kindly disposed towards Ralegh and an honest man, became Secretary of State. A new favourite of the same stamp as Car, one George Villiers rose to power, and he, for his own reasons, hated the Howards. Ralegh approached him in the usual way. He gave £750 each to his brothers, and obtained in consequence the regard of George Villiers. Through all the years of his imprisonment Ralegh had continued quietly to urge--through the Prince, through the Queen, through Cecil--how foolish it was to keep imprisoned a man like himself, who could fill the treasury of England with gold from a mine in Guiana, of which he alone knew the site. He persisted always upon the wealth of Guiana, so that little by little it grew to be common talk. To Ralegh, as to Cecil Rhodes, gold meant power; but, more than gold, he desired the sensation of freedom on the wide sea, and the long journey to the unknown land. More than gold, he desired the attainment of the great dream which had become inextricably part of his life. That was his life's object, and nothing could keep him from any possible means of its fulfilment. The quiet labour in the Tower at his history and in the little laboratory only served to lull the pain of captivity, and gave scope to but a part of his great nature, though many men, and many by no means inferior men, have spent their lives in doing work less excellent and less valuable than Ralegh packed into the years of his imprisonment. [Illustration: HENRY PRINCE OF WALES] For twelve years Ralegh had been in prison. He was sixty-three years old when he regained his liberty. Most men would have been content to continue the quiet habit of work formed during his long imprisonment. Ralegh's spirit was, however, undaunted; not even habit could deaden his unconquerable vitality. His release had been gained that he might arrange and lead an expedition to Guiana. Indeed, he was still under the charge of a keeper, and his sole permitted business was to arrange the detail for the fitting out of the expedition--ships, men, supplies and so forth.