And so the pile of written sheets grew. But the book was never
finished, for long before the first volume was ready the brave
young prince for whom it was written died.
To Raleigh, this was the cruelest blow fate ever dealt him, for
with the death of Prince Henry died his hope of freedom. In
spite of his long imprisonment, Raleigh had never lost hope of
one day regaining his freedom. Prince Henry just before his
death had wrung an unwilling promise from the King his father
that Raleigh should be set free. But when the Prince died the
King forgot his promise.
"O eloquent, just and mighty death!" Raleigh says in the last
lines of his book, "Whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded,
what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath
flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised;
thou hast drawn together all the far stretching greatness, all
the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over
with these two narrow words Hic Jacet.
"Lastly, whereas this book by the title it hath, calls itself,
the first part of The General History of the World, implying a
second and third volume, which I also intended and have hewn out,
besides many other discouragements, persuading my silence, it
hath pleased God to take that glorious prince out of the world,
to whom they were directed; whose unspeakable and never enough
lamented loss hath taught me to say with Job, my heart is turned
to mourning and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
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