He then married Elizabeth Devereux, a
first cousin of his patron, the Earl of Essex; but the marriage was
unfortunate; he could not abide his wife, and in order to "occupy his
mind from thinking of her vainest words," in 1595 he fitted out with
Essex's aid and his father's a buccaneering expedition to the Gulf of
Guinea. But in something less than two years after the most amazing
adventures he came home to Wiston under the Downs, "alive but poor,"
and with his passion for adventure in nowise abated. In 1597 he
accompanied Essex on the "Islands voyage," but, seeking more paying
adventure, in the winter of 1598 he consented at Essex's suggestion to
lead a little company of English adventurers to assist Cesare D'Este to
regain his Duchy of Ferrara, then in the hands of the Pope. He set
forth, but upon reaching Venice found that Cesare had submitted. Again
he was out of employment; but it was upon the quays of Venice that he
conceived the most astonishing enterprise that even an Englishman has
ever undertaken. He proposed to set out for Persia with the object of
persuading the Shah to ally himself with Christendom against the Turk,
and hoped also to establish commercial relations between England and
Persia.
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