England should have developed that masterly power of warping great minds
and bending the English Courts of Justice to his purposes, and even
crunching its strong old oaken Bench and Bar into his own royal privy
pocket, does surprise one. The secret of this unenglish strength,
however, has been attributed partly to his Bur-leigh help.

When Raleigh found the cords thus tightening round him, he offered
sundry concessions and services for life and liberty. He would carry out
his schemes for enriching the king and the kingdom by conquering and
exploring Guiana; he would accept exile in Holland; or emigrate to
Virginia, and help to build up a new English empire in the West; but all
in vain. It was feared that his unexpired and dormant patent might
interfere with the King's own Virginia charter. So Raleigh and Hariot
worked on, but relieved the tedium by ever changing study. Every year or
two, as long as he could command through himself or friends the
resources, Raleigh sent privately a reconnoitring and intelligence ship
to Guiana, to keep that pet enterprise alive. In this delicate matter
Hariot was Sir Walter's geographer and assayer, while Hariot's old
college friend, Keymis, was his factor or shipping agent.

Then come Raleigh's Essays and smaller writing with his hopeful
correspondence with the Queen and Prince Henry. Lady Raleigh's
privileges, after six years, ceased in 1611; probably about the time
that Cecil was for some unaccountable reason prospecting actively for
new evidence against both Sir Walter and Percy. The years 1610 and 1611
were anxious times for them both; but they were bright days for Hariot,
with his invention of the telescope and his discoveries. Whether in the
Tower, administering new scientific delicacies and delights to the
prisoners; or at Sion, unlocking the secrets of the starry firmament by
night, in his observatory; or floating between Sion and the Tower by day