No darker stain rests on the memory of James than that of his judicial murder of Sir Walter Raleigh. Influenced by his evil councillors, the pusillanimous king offered up the gallant seaman as a sacrifice to the revengeful Spaniards, or rather to their ambassador, Gondomar. Cheerful to the last, the noble Raleigh bade farewell to all around him; then, taking the axe, he felt along upon the edge, and smiling, said to the sheriff, "This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases." On being asked which way he would lay himself, he placed his head on the block, observing, "So that the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lieth." Some lines written on Sir Walter's death thus finish:-- "I saw in every stander-by Pale death; life only in thine eye. The legacy thou gavest us then We'll sue for when thou diest again. Farewell! truth shall this story say, We died, thou only livedst that day." Such was the end of the great Sir Walter Raleigh, once so highly in favour with Queen Elizabeth, and, next to Drake, the great scourge and terror of the Spaniards. The Algerines were then, as they were for many years afterwards, the pests of the ocean. Their chief cruising ground was in the Straits of Gibraltar. Numerous English merchantmen fell into their clutches. The same determined spirit, however, which has since been exhibited by British seamen, existed in those days, and induced, on several occasions, the captives to make gallant efforts to effect their escape. Among these instances two are especially worthy of note.