sensible of their own supplantation, and to project his; which
shortly made him to sing, "Fortune my foe."'

Now, be this true or not, and we do not put much faith in it, it
gives no reason for the early dislike of Raleigh, save the somewhat
unsatisfactory one which Cain would have given for his dislike of
Abel. Moreover, there exists a letter of Essex's, written as
thoroughly in the Cain spirit as any we ever read; and we wonder
that, after reading that letter, men can find courage to repeat the
old sentimentalism about the 'noble and unfortunate' Earl. His
hatred of Raleigh--which, as we shall see hereafter, Raleigh not only
bears patiently, but requites with good deeds as long as he can--
springs, by his own confession, simply from envy and disappointed
vanity. The spoilt boy insults Queen Elizabeth about her liking for
the 'knave Raleigh.' She, 'taking hold of one word disdain,' tells
Essex that 'there was no such cause why I should thus disdain him.'
On which, says Essex, 'as near as I could I did describe unto her
what he had been, and what he was; and then I did let her see,
whether I had come to disdain his competition of love, or whether I
could have comfort to give myself over to the service of a mistress
that was in awe of such a man. I spake for grief and choler as much
against him as I could: and I think he standing at the door might
very well hear the worst that I spoke of him. In the end, I saw she
was resolved to defend him, and to cross me.' Whereupon follows a
'scene,' the naughty boy raging and stamping, till he insults the
Queen, and calls Raleigh 'a wretch'; whereon poor Elizabeth, who
loved the coxcomb for his father's sake, 'turned her away to my Lady
Warwick,' and Essex goes grumbling forth.

Raleigh's next few years are brilliant and busy ones; and gladly, did