Elizabeth I (36 page)

They began arriving: first the lowest-ranking courtiers, invited for the first time, with their curious and eager wives peeping into the halls and stairways; then the more important personages; and finally the highest, each trying to arrive later than his rival. Some announced their eminence by sending a token reminder of themselves from their estates, where they were spending the holidays. The royal larder overflowed with game pies, blackberry comfits, honey from prized hives, and even smoked swans from the country. The musicians got to practice on the first, less demanding audiences and polish their performances for the critical listeners who would follow. Players rehearsed in the Great Hall; the Lord Chamberlain's Men promised excellent drama chosen from the autumn's new plays. There had been an explosion of new material after the theaters reopened in London, after the plague, as if the playwrights had done nothing in the meantime but sit in their rooms writing while the theaters were shut.

There would, of course, be religious services, and Whitgift stood ready to preside, but business would continue right up until Christmas Eve. The French and Scots ambassadors dogged my every step, pretending to urge certain policies on me, in reality to spy for their masters. It was, as far as I was concerned, part of the festivities, and I would lead them into a merry maze. Hampton Court had a maze; that one was outside, and my diplomatic one would be inside.

On Christmas Eve, as Archbishop Whitgift intoned the closing prayers of the service, rows of candles were lit all down the great passageway leading from the chapel royal, and cornets announced the glad arrival of Christmas.

We held the Christmas banquet in the Great Watching Chamber, saving the Great Hall for the performance to come; its stage was being hastily erected while we ate; we could hear the banging and scraping over the sweet tunes of the lutes and harps. I had invited my forgiven adventurers to sit on either side of me; on their sides sat young Cecil and young Essex, making a parenthesis of rivalry around Raleigh and Drake. Farther down the table were Admiral Howard, Catherine, Whitgift, Charles Blount, old Cecil, Helena van Snakenborg. My godson John Harington and various Carey brothers filled out the length of the head table. The other tables were a swarm of courtiers of various degrees.

I shall not describe the food or the proceedings, for they follow an established pattern. What is memorable is what departs from the pattern. And now, like the Green Knight appearing at King Arthur's winter festivities, a savage strode into the room, nearly naked except for a loincloth, an elaborate many-stranded necklace, and a dazzling feathered headdress. Much like an animal taken directly from a forest, he looked around at us, his eyes darting everywhere, as if searching for an escape. In his wake a white man followed and took his place beside him.

Now Raleigh rose. “I bid you welcome, Captain Whiddon, and your guest from South America.” The white man nodded, then bowed to me. “Your Majesty, and all the good parliamentarians who voted funds for my exploratory expedition, I present the first fruit of my preparation,” continued Raleigh. “Jacob Whiddon, a captain who never hesitates to invade Spanish waters, reconnoitered an area on the South American coast near Trinidad for my proposed voyage there. He reports favorable conditions and brought this young man back to learn English so that he might act as our translator and guide.”

“Speak, Ewaioma,” prodded Whiddon.

The bronze man opened his mouth and said, in a surprisingly soft voice, “Ezrabeta Cassipuna Acarewana!”

“That means ‘Elizabeth the Great Princess,' ” said Raleigh. “I have explained to him that you are a great
cassique
, a chief of the north, who has many other
cassiques
at her command.” He extended his hand to Ewaioma, who approached the table. “This great
cassique
, my mistress, has freed the whole northern coast of Europe from Spain and is a constant enemy of its tyranny. They fear her, and she will protect you from the depredations of that evil empire. You may trust your land and your people to her.”

“I—give tanks,” he said.

Drake now rose. “Perhaps you should explain to Ewaioma that
I
am the reason you are so feared by Spain,” he said boldly to me. “It is I who struck terror into them, in Europe, in Panama, in Peru—in fact, the whole world over. I made it my mission from my early days to wreak vengeance on them. I pray my last deed will be to smite the Spaniard! Let me perish while thrusting a sword into one!”

“Amen!” yelled Essex, jumping up. The savage flinched at all the commotion. “Slay them here, there, everywhere!”

“Down!” I ordered my unruly hunting dogs. “Behave yourselves in a seemly fashion.” That was the problem with warriors and adventurers; like mastiffs, they did not belong indoors. “Now, Ewaioma, I bid you welcome to Hampton Court and our festivities. You do not have a winter where you live, but here we pause at the darkest time to gather and celebrate. Eat, drink, dance, as you will.”

Whiddon led the bewildered man out, and Raleigh leaned over confidentially. “I have more to show you, for your eyes only, if you would be so gracious as to come to my suite of chambers tomorrow. There is private information about gold that I wish to impart, as well as maps for you to inspect. Will you consent?”

My curiosity alone would lead me there, even if it were not my firm policy to test everything I sponsored.

St. Stephen's Day, December 26. As I made my way across the outer courtyard to Raleigh's chamber, I found it aswarm with people carrying curtains, costumes, and furniture into the Great Hall for tonight's performance. I could hear, dimly, the sound of furious hammering from inside the hall. I keenly anticipated the evening's entertainment, but now I was bound for a private performance. For I had no doubt he would put on a performance, my Walter.

I was not disappointed. He flung open the door, bending low, spreading out a cloak across the threshold. “We must seek to make what is just a story into a truth,” he said.

“Then you should have put the mud beneath it, as the story goes, that you saved me from at Greenwich.” I stepped carefully on the velvet. There was a tale that Raleigh had spread his best cloak on a mud puddle for me to tread upon, lest I sully my dainty slippers. People loved it. Unfortunately it had never happened.

He laughed. He had always had a warm, inviting laugh. “I must needs be more frugal now,” he said. “I cannot sacrifice a good cape so easily. I have had hard times of late.”

“Ah, Walter, when will you cease to be a beggar?” I asked. I was growing ever more weary of the continual requests—some more open and bold than others, but all a constant clawing—for money from all creatures about me.

“When Your Majesty ceases to be a benefactor!” He grinned, setting his hands on his hips—hips clad in fashionable breeches of slashed crimson satin. Then he ushered me into the chamber.

These chambers around the base courtyard had been built by Cardinal Wolsey for his guests, and as usual with the cardinal, he had spared no expense. Even though they were over seventy years old now, the rooms lacked no comfort. Just so is luxury immortal. The walls were covered in the finest linenfold paneling, and a frieze ran around all four walls. Wolsey's taste was for biblical scenes, and this one featured Samson and Delilah—most fitting. At least Bess had spared Raleigh's hair.

“Now I can impart the secrets to you,” he said. “I must tell you of El Dorado.” He clapped, and then opened a door leading to another chamber, motioning me in. Inside this smaller chamber, Ewaioma stood silently, almost naked, his body glistening with oil. Standing in a corner, one of Raleigh's servants leaned on a long, hollow cane, watching me warily. He dipped the bottom of the cane into a jug at his feet, raised it up, and blew a cloud of dust all over Ewaioma. He repeated this again and again, and slowly the Indian's body turned to gold. When he was a gleaming idol, Raleigh said, “This is what the Indians in Guiana do with their chief. On his birthday they coat him with gold dust. In some ceremonies, all the nobles do likewise, until everyone in the palace is covered in gold. Later they plunge into a sacred lake to wash it off, without trying to recover the precious dust. They have so much of it, they can throw it away.” He rolled up his sleeve, smeared it with oil, then stuck his arm out to be dusted with gold. It was quickly transformed, the veins turning into raised threads, the hairs on his arm like golden slivers. He started to pull at his doublet.

“No need to go further,” I said. I wondered what he would look like all coated in gold, shorn of his doublet and shirt, but did not pursue it. “I have seen enough.”

He lowered his arm and motioned to the other two that the exhibition was over. “Let me tell you what Captain Whiddon has reported,” he said, dragging a table over, and two chairs. He gave me the more comfortable one and put a pillow on it. He unrolled a parchment map and stabbed a thick finger on it. “There is an island just off the coast of South America, named Trinidad after the Holy Trinity. The Spanish have that. But they do not have the land beyond”—he stabbed again—“the land called Guiana. It is a jungle with many rivers cutting through. Somewhere in the highlands above the jungle and the basin of the Orinoco River lies the city of El Dorado, filled with gold. The Indian name for it is ‘Manoa,' and it is so wealthy the chief has a garden of gold replicas of all the plants growing in his kingdom. We know this because a Spanish explorer, Juan Martínez, found it!”

“Then why does not Spain claim it?”

“She is trying to. The commander of the fort in Trinidad is an old man who is convinced of the truth of the story, and he has sent out his own explorers. But the Indians hate the Spanish and refuse to help them. As the enemies of the Spanish, we will be welcomed. Your Majesty, my good Queen, give me letters patent to explore, and a commission to seek El Dorado.”

“Parliament has already granted you funds,” I said.

“But without your gracious patronage, how can I claim the land on your behalf?” He leaned close, his voice low, as if to frame the words was dangerous. “The Spanish and Portuguese are not in possession of this coast. What matter if the pope granted it to them? He had not the right. Do we recognize the pope's authority in our own realm? Why, then, outside it? He is nothing but a deluded, corrupt old man, in thrall to the merchants of Italy and Spain.” He shot a shrewd look at me. “Your father would never have hesitated.”

“True,” I admitted. “But this deluded old man, as you style him, has been most successful in rallying the Catholic faithful and stemming the tide of reformation.”

“Yes, with the Inquisition!” Raleigh suddenly raised his voice. Eavesdroppers be damned. “That is why we must fight him on distant shores. This coast will serve as a base of privateering. And surely, my most dear Queen, you would not wish to see the cruel hand of Rome start to choke the noble natives of Guiana. Up until now they have managed to escape the fate of the Incas and the Aztecs, ruined by the Spanish. All that gold, going to Spain. But the Spanish have never found the source of that gold on the South American continent. It must have come from somewhere. I believe it is near this El Dorado. The Spanish have made off with the product, but we can secure the source itself!”

He was persuasion itself. But I needed little persuading. I longed to taste such adventure firsthand. Instead, I was forced to rely on others to live it for me. My blood sang at the thought of exploring this new land, discovering things we could only guess at in these snug rooms at Hampton Court.

“Very well,” I said. “I appoint you to this and will have the commission papers drawn up. Let us hope the golden city of El Dorado is more real than the episode of your laying your cloak in the mud for me. As you said, we can seek to make the first story real. But in this case, either the gold is there or it is not, and we cannot conjure it up.”