The privy counsel met at the lord keeper's | place." In this strain he proceeded through the house, and were assisted by noblemen selected whole of his address. for that purpose. The commissioners were eighteen, the auditory about two hundred; there was much state and solemnity in the assembly, and much humility and contrition on the part of Essex, who knelt while the commission was opened, and so remained till he had leave to rise. From this mode of conduct, which, doubtless, had been prescribed to him, he never departed but once during his examination, and he was then reminded by the lord treasurer of the course he was expected to pursue. The case was opened by a statement, that "to command down the winds of malicious and seditious rumours wherewith men's conceits may have been tossed to and fro, the queen was pleased to call the world to an understanding of her princely course held towards the Earl of Essex, as well in herebefore protracting, as in now proceeding against him, not in the ordinary and open place of offenders and criminals, which might leave a taint upon his honour, but, on account of his penitence and submission, her majesty had ordered that the hearing should be before a great, honourable, and selected council, a full and deliberate, and yet in respect a private, mild, and gracious hearing." The chief heads of the accusation were then stated by the lawyers, who, with the exception of Bacon, either not in the court secret, or disregarding their instructions, pursued their argument with their usual pertinacity, coloured by the respective characters of the men, and of course by Sir Edward Coke, with his accustomed rancour. Bacon, on the contrary, though he was favoured with a part of the charge least likely to be injurious to Essex, still complained that he might injure his friend, and, though in array against him, evidently fought on his side. To those persons present who were not already apprized of the queen's wishes, Bacon's speech would be considered more consistent with his affection for his friend than his duty to the queen, as it was constructed as much as possible to do him service. "I hope," he said, "that my Lord Essex himself, and all who now hear me, will consider that the particular bond of duty, which I do now, and ever will acknowledge that I owe unto his lordship, must be sequestered and laid aside, in discharge of that higher duty, which we all owe unto the queen, whose grace and mercy I cannot enough extol; whereof the earl is a singular work, in that, upon his humble suit, she is content not to prosecute him in her court of justice, the Star Chamber, but, according to his own earnest desire, to remove that cup from him, for those are my lord's own words, and doth now suffer his cause to be heard inter privatos parietes, by way of merey and favour only, where no manner of disloyalty is laid to his charge; for if that had been the question, this had not been the (D) He constantly kept in view the queen's determination neither to injure her favourite in person nor in purse; he averred that there was no charge of disloyalty; he stated nothing as a lawyer; nothing from his own ingenious mind; nothing that could displease the queen; he repeated only passages from letters, in the queen's possession, complaining of her cruelty and obduracy; topics which she loved to have set forth in her intercourse with a man whom she was thought to have too much favoured; he selected the most affecting expressions from the earl's letter, and though he at last performed his part of the task, by touching upon Hayward's book, he established in the minds of the hearers the fact that Essex had called in the work a week after he learnt that it was published. To those who are familiar with Bacon's style, and know the fertility of his imagination, and the force of his reasoning, it is superfluous to observe that he brought to this semblance of a trial only the shadow of a speech; and that under the flimsy veil of an accuser there may easily be detected the face of a friend. In answer to these charges, Essex, on his knees, declared that, ever since it had pleased her majesty to remove that cup from him, he had laid aside all thought of justifying himself, or of making any contestation with his sovereign; that he had made a divorce between himself and the world, and that, rather than bear a charge of disloyalty or want of affection, he would tear his heart out of his breast with his own hands. The first part of his defence drew tears from many of his hearers; but, being somewhat touched by the sharp speeches and rhetorical flourishes of his accusers, he expressed himself with so much heat, before he had gone half through with his reply, that he was interrupted by the lord keeper, who told him "this was not the course to do him good; that he would do well to commit himself to her majesty's mercy; that he was acquitted by all present of disloyalty, of which he did not stand charged, but of disobedience and contempt; and if he meant to say that he had disobeyed, without an intention of disobedience, it was frivolous and absurd." In pronouncing the censure, the lord keeper declared, that if Essex had been tried elsewhere, and in another manner, a great fine and imprisonment for life must have been his sentence, but as he was in a course of favour, his censure was, "That the Earl of Essex should be suspended from his offices, and continue a prisoner in his own house till it pleased her majesty to release him." The Earl of Cumberland declared, that, if he thought the censure was to stand, he would ask more time, for it seemed to him somewhat severe; and intimated how easily a general com mander might incur the like, but, in confidence of | my lord's part: I perceive old love will not easily her majesty's mercy, he agreed with the rest. be forgotten." Availing himself of these favourOf this day's proceedings a confused and im-able dispositions, Bacon ventured to say to the perfect account has been published by several queen, "he hoped she meant that of herself;" historians,1 and an unfair view taken of the and in the conclusion suggested that it might be conduct of Bacon, who could not have any as- expedient not to let this matter go forth to the signable motive for the course they have attributed public, since by her own command no record had to him. The queen was evidently determined to been kept, and that it was not well to do that protect her favourite. The Cecils had abated popularly which she had not suffered to be done their animosity. The people were anxious for judicially. The queen assented, and the narrahis reinstatement. Anthony Bacon was at this tive was suppressed. time living under the protection of Essex, and the brothers were in constant and affectionate in tercourse. course. 4 3 To Sir Robert Cecil, and to Lord Henry Howard, the confidential friend of Essex, and who had willingly shared his banishment from court, he indignantly complained of these slanders and threats. To Lord Howard he says:5" My Lord, There be very few besides yourself, to whom I would perform this respect. For I contemn mendacia famæ, as it walks among inferiors, though I neglect it not, as it may have entrance into some Amidst these exertions, known at that time only to the queen, to Essex, and to his confidential friends, Bacon was exposed to great obloquy, The sentence had scarcely been pronounced, (6th and, at the time when he was thinking only how June, 1600,) when Bacon's anxiety for his friend he could most and best serve his friend, he was again manifested itself. On the very next day he threatened by the populace with personal vioattended the queen, fully resolved to exert his ut-lence, as one who had deserted and betrayed most endeavours to restore Essex again to favour. him. Unmoved by such clamour, upon which The account of his interview with the queen, he had calculated, he went right onward in his from which his friendship and the queen's affection for Essex may be seen, is thus stated by Bacon: "As soon as this day was past, I lost no time; but the very next day following, as I remember, I attended her majesty, fully resolved to try and put in use my utmost endeavour, so far as I in my weakness could give furtherance, to bring my lord again speedily into court and favour; and knowing, as I supposed at least, how the queen was to be used, I thought that to make her conceive that the matter went well then, was the way to make her leave off there; and I remember well I said to her, You have now, madam, obtained victory over two things, which the greatest princes in the world cannot at their wills subdue; the one is over fame; the other is over a great mind: for surely the world is now, I hope, reasonably well satisfied; and for my lord, he did shew that humiliation towards your majesty, at I am persuaded he was never in his lifetime more fit for your majesty's favour than he is now: therefore, if your majesty will not mar it by lingering, but give over at the best, and now you have made so good a full point, receive him again with tenderness, I shall then think that all that is past is for the best.' Whereat, I remember, she took exceeding great contentment, and did often iterate and put me in mind, that she had ever said, that her proceedings should be ad reparationem,' and not ad ruinam;' as who saith, that now was the time I should well perceive that that saying of her's should prove true. And farther she willed me to set down in writing all that passed that day." 3 Bacon's account is as follows:-I obeyed her commandment, and within some few days after brought her again the noons; and when I came to that part that set forth my lord's own answer, which was my principal care, I do well bear in narration, which I did read unto her in two several after mind that she was extraordinarily moved with it, in kindness and relenting towards my lord: and told me afterwards, speak ing how well I had expressed my lord's part, that she perceiv ed old love would not easily be forgotten: whereunto I answered suddenly, that I hoped she meant that by herself. But in conclusion, I did advise her, that now she had taken a representation of the matter to herself, that she would let it go no farther: "For, madam," said 1, "the fire blazeth well already, what should you tumble it? And besides, it may please you to keep a convenience with yourself in this case; for since your express direction was, there should be no register nor clerk to take this sentence, nor no record or memorial made up of the proceeding, why should you now do that popularly, which you would not admit to be done judicially ?" Whereupon she did agree that that writing should be suppressed; and I think there were not five persons that ever saw it. Apology. 4 His Apology to the Earl of Devonshire contains various observations to this effect:-I was not so unseen in the world, but I knew the condition was subject to envy and peril, &c., but I resolved to endure it, in expectation of better. According to the ordinary charities of court, it was given out, that I was one of them that incensed the queen against my lord of Essex; and I must give this testimony to my lord Cecil, that one time in his house at the Savoy, he dealt with me directly, and said to me, "Cousin, I hear it, but I believe it not, that you should do some ill office to my lord of Essex; for my part, I am merely passive, and not active in this ac tion; and I follow the queen, and that heavily, and 1 lead In a few days Bacon waited upon the queen with the narrative, who, upon hearing him read Essex's answer, which was his principal care, "was exceedingly moved in kindness and relent-sent with as well as with any one living; the queen indeed ing," and said, "How well you have expressed 1 See particularly Hume. 2 See Bacon's Apology. her not; my lord of Essex is one that in nature I could con is my sovereign, and I am her creature, I may not lose her, and the same course I would wish you to take." Whereupon ears. For your lordship's love, rooted upon good opinion, I esteem it highly, because I have tasted of the fruits of it; and we both have tasted of the best waters, in my account, to knit minds together. There is shaped a tale in London's forge, that beateth apace at this time, that I should deliver opinion to the queen, in my lord of Essex's cause. First, that it was premunire, and now last, that it was high treason; and this opinion, to be in opposition and encounter of the lord chief justice's opinion, and the attorney general's. My lord, I thank God, my wit serveth me not to deliver any opinion to the queen, which my stomach serveth me not to maintain; one and the same conscience of duty guiding me and fortifying me. But the untruth of this fable, God and my sovereign can witness, and there I leave it; knowing no more remedy against lies than others do against libels. The root, no question of it, is, partly some light-headed envy at my accesses to her majesty; which being begun, and continued since my childhood, as long as her majesty shall think me worthy of them, I scorn those that shall think the contrary. And another reason is, the aspersion of this tale and the envy thereof, upon some greater man, in regard of my nearness. And therefore, my lord, I pray you answer for me to any person that you think worthy your own reply and my defence. For my lord of Essex, I am not servile to him, having regard to my superior's duty. I have been much bound unto him; and, on the other side, I have spent more time and more thoughts about his well-doing than ever I did about mine own. I pray God you his friends amongst you be in the right. Nulla remedia, tam facient dolorem, quam quæ sunt salutaria. For my part, I have deserved better than to have my name objected to envy, or my life to a ruffian's violence. But I have the privy coat of a good conscience. I am sure these courses and bruits hurt my lord more than all. So having written to your lordship, I desire exceedingly to be preferred in your good opinion and love. And so leave you to God's goodness." portionable to an infinite desire; his study, in my knowledge, to engage your love by the best means he could devise, are forcible persuasions and instances to make me judge that a gentleman so well born, a wise gentleman so well levelled a gentleman so highly valued by a person of his virtue, worth, and quality, will rather hunt after all occasions of expressing thankfulness, so far as duty doth permit, than either omit opportunity or increase indignation. No man alive out of the thoughts of judgment, the ground of knowledge, and lesson of experience, is better able to distinguish betwixt public and private offices, and direct measure in keeping a measure in discharge of both, to which I will refer you for the finding out of the golden number. In my own particular opinion I esteem of you as I have ever done, and your rare parts deserve; and so far as my voice hath credit, justify your credit according to the warrant of your profession, and the store of my best wishes in all degrees towards you, &c. My credit is so weak in working any strange effect of friendship where I would do most, as to speak of blossoms without giving tastes of fruits were idleness; but if you will give credit to my words, it is not long since I gave testimony of my good affection in the ear of one that neither wants desire nor means to do for you. Thus wishing to your credit that allowance of respect and reverence which your wise and honest letter doth deserve, and resting ever ready to relieve all minds (so far as my ability and means will stretch) that groan under the burden of undeserved wrong, I commend you to God's protection, and myself to the best use you will make of me. In haste from my lodging," &c. The partisans of Essex again interfered, to raise the flames which Bacon had so judiciously suppressed, and again were the queen's ministers compelled to check their imprudence. On the 12th of June, 1600, the lord keeper, in his usual speech in the Star Chamber to the country gentlemen, mentioned the late proceeding against the Earl of Essex, who, he observed, had acknowledged his errors, and expressed his sorrow for them; but that some wicked persons had intermeddled by libelling what her majesty had done in that point, which occasioned a proclamation to be published against such seditious practices.1 Notwithstanding this ill-advised conduct, the queen was desirous to remove from Essex the re The answer of Lord Howard to this letter, the best answer that could be made to the slanderers of whom Bacon complains, is as follows: "I might be thought unworthy of that good conceit you hold of me, good Mr. Bacon, if I did not sympathize with so sensitive a mind in this smart of wrongful imputation of unthankfulness. You were the first that gave me notice, I protest, at Rich-straint of a keeper, when her indignation was mond of the rumour, though within two days after I heard more than I would of it: but as you suffer more than you deserve, so I cannot believe what the greedy malice of the world hath laid upon you. The travels of that worthy gentleman in your behalf, when you stood for a place of credit; the delight which he hath ever taken in your company; his grief that he could not seal up assurance of his love by fruits, effects, and offices pro again excited by a rumour, that Essex had been duly authorized by her to create knights, though his having conferred that honour had been made a charge against him before the commissioners. In the first moment of her displeasure she determined to rescind the honours he had bestowed Bacon advised her against this step, and recom mended that a letter written by her own hand to 1 Sydney Papers, vol. ii. 201. Essex, when in Ireland, should be made public, it was ebbing-water, now exerted all his power to in which she had commanded to the contrary. reconcile her to her favourite, whom, in his many Upon sending to Essex for her letter, he re- accesses to the queen, he availed himself of every turned a submissive reply, but said that it was opportunity to serve; and, although he could not, either lost or mislaid; and, though her anger was without exciting her displeasure, directly comgreat at the non-production of this document, she, municate with him, he, by the intervention of a early in the next month, ordered him to be libe- friend, regularly acquainted him with the prorated from his keeper, but not to quit London.1 gress he made in abating the queen's anger; and, the moment he was restored to liberty, the letter, and through the whole summer were regularly imparted to Essex. In the same spirit, and with the same parental anxiety by which all Bacon's conduct had been influenced, he wrote two letters, one as from Anthony Bacon to Essex, the other from Essex, in answer, both to be shown by Bacon to the queen; and prepared a letter to be sent by Essex directly to her majesty, the scope of which what the earl himself would have written. But there are Upon this release, which his declining health rendered necessary, he solicited permission to re-assurances of his exertions were repeated by tire to the house of a relation near Reading; a permission which the queen, although she commanded him to dismiss two of his friends from his service, and although disturbed and displeased, seemed inclined to grant, as she listened to friendly communications made on his behalf, and received letters from him, in which, having, discovered the wisdom of his friend's advice, "that the queen could not be controlled by resistance," he was endeavouring to regain by obsequiousness the ascendancy which he had lost by his rude and headstrong violence; assuring the queen, "that he kissed her royal hand and the rod which had corrected him; that he could never recover his wonted joy till he beheld her comfort-I was even at the mouth of the grave. No worldly means had able eyes, which had been his guiding stars, and power to stay me in this world but the comfort which I reby the conduct whereof he had sailed most hap-ceived from your majesty. When I was weak and full of pily whilst he held his course in a just latitude; that now he was determined to repent him of his offence, and to say with Nebuchodonosor, my dwelling is with the beast of the field, to eat grass as an ox, and to be wet with the dew of heaven, till it shall please the queen to restore my understanding to me.' This abasement gratified Elizabeth, who said, "though she did not expect that his deeds would accord with his words, yet, if this could be brought to pass with the furnace, she should be more favourable to the profession of alchymy." Bacon, who was too wise to cross Elizabeth in the spring-tide of her anger, without waiting till 1 Sydney Papers, p. 204. Her majesty is greatly troubled with the last number of knights made by the Earl of Essex in Ireland, and purposes, by public proclamation, to command them from the place due to their dignity; and that no ancient gentleman of the kingdom gave them any place. The warrant was signed, as I heard; but by Mr. Secretary's very special care and credit, it is stayed till Sunday the lords meet in court. Mr. Bacon is thought to be the man that moves her majesty unto it, affirming, that by the law the earl had no authority to make them, being by her majesty's own letter, of her own hand written, commanded the contrary. Her majesty had ordered the lord keeper to remove my lord of Essex's keeper from him; but a while after, being somewhat troubled with the remembrance of his making so many knights, made a stay of her former order, and sent unto the earl for her own letter, which she writ unto him to command him to make none. But with a very submissive letter, he returned answer that he had lost it or mislaid it, for he could not find it; which somewhat displeases her majesty. As yet his liberty stands upon these terms. &c.. &c -28 June, 1600. 2 Sydney Papers, 205-7-8-12. 3 Camden, 169. Birch's Elizabeth, 461. One of the letters written by Mr. Francis Bacon for the earl, and printed among the works of the former, beginning with these words, It were great simplicity in me," &c., is much inferior to two others, which appear to have come from his lordship's own hand, and have not yet been seen in print. The first is in these terms: "Let me beg leave, most dear and most admired sovereign, to remember the story of your own gracious goodness, when infirmities, the increase of liberty which your majesty gave, and the gracious message which your majesty sent me, made What to speak; but my humble (now exiled, though once too happy) eyes are lifted up, and speak in their dumb language, which your majesty will answer your own chosen time. Till then no soul is so afflicted as that of Your majesty's humblest vassal, ESSEX. The other letter was written on the 17th of November, the anniversary of her accession to the throne: "Vouchsafe, dread sovereign, to know there lives a man, though dead to the world, and in himself exercised with continual torments of body and mind, that doth more true honour to your thrice blessed day, than all those that appear in your sight. For no soul had ever such an impression of your perfections, no alteration showed such an effect of your power, nor no heart ever felt such a joy of your triumph.. For they that feel the comfortable influence of your majesty's favour, or stand in the bright beams of your presence, rejoice partly for your majesty's, but chiefly for their own happiness. Only miserable Essex, full of pain, full of sickness, full of sorrow, languishing in repentance for his offences past, hateful to himself, that he is yet alive, and importunate on death, if your favour be irrevocable; he joys only for your majesty's great happiness and happy greatness: and were the rest of his days never so many, and sure to be as happy as they are like to be miserable, he would lose them all to have this happy 17th day many and many times renewed with glory to your majesty, and comfort of all your faithful subjects, of whom none is accursed but your majesty's humbles vassal, ESSEX. were, says Bacon, "but to represent and picture | his fortunes: which my intention, I did also sigforth unto her majesty my lord's mind to be such, nify to my lord as soon as ever he was at his as I knew her majesty would fainest have had liberty, whereby I might without peril of the it: which letters whosoever shall see, for they queen's indignation write to him; and, having cannot now be retracted or altered, being by received from his lordship a courteous and loving reason of my brother's or his lordship's servants' acceptation of my good-will and endeavours, I delivery, long since come into divers hands, let did apply it in all my accesses to the queen, him judge, especially if he knew the queen, and which were very many at that time; and purdo remember those times, whether they were not posely sought and wrought upon other variable the labours of one that sought to bring the queen pretences, but only and chiefly for that purpose. about for my lord of Essex his good."1 And on the other side, I did not forbear to give my lord from time to time faithful advertisement what I found, and what I wished. And I drew for him, by his appointment, some letters to her majesty; which, though I knew well his lord To such expedients did his friendship for Essex induce him to submit: expedients, which, however they may be sanctioned by the conduct of courtiers, stooping, as they suppose, to occasions, not to persons, but ill accord with the admoni-|ship's gift and style was better than mine own, tion of Bacon's philosophy, that "the honest and just bounds of observation by one person upon another, extend no further but to understand him sufficiently, whereby not to give him offence; or whereby to be able to give him faithful counsel; or whereby to stand upon reasonable guard and caution with respect to a man's self: but to be speculative into another man, to the end to know how to work him, or wind him, or govern him, proceedeth from a heart that is double and cloven, and not entire and ingenuous." Such is Bacon's doctrine, but having, as it appears, in his youth, taken an unfortunate bias from the censures of Burleigh and Cecil, and from the frequent assertions of Elizabeth, that he was without knowledge of affairs; he affected, through the whole of his life, an overstrained refinement in trifles, and a political subtlety, which never failed to awaken the suspicions of his enemies, and was altogether unworthy of his great mind. yet, because he required it, alleging, that by his long restraint he was grown almost a stranger to the queen's present conceits, I was ready to perform it; and sure I am, that for the space of six weeks or two months, it prospered so well, as I expected continually his restoring to his attendance. And I was never better welcome to the queen, nor more made of, than when I spake fullest and boldest for him in which kind the particulars were exceeding many; whereof, for an example, I will remember to your lordship one or two. As at one time, I call to mind, her majesty was speaking of a fellow that undertook to cure, or at least to ease my brother of his gout, and asked me how it went forward; and I told her majesty, that at the first he received good by it, but after in the course of his cure he found himself at a stay, or rather worse: the queen said again I will tell you, Bacon, the error of it: the manner of these physicians, and especially these From these various efforts Bacon indulged the empirics, is to continue one kind of medicine, most flattering hopes of the restoration of his which at the first is proper, being to draw out the friend to the queen's favour, in which, if Essex ill humour; but after, they have not the dishad acted with common prudence, he would have cretion to change the medicine, but apply still succeeded; though the queen kept alive her dis-drawing medicines, when they should rather inpleasure by many passionate expressions, "that he had long tried her anger, and she must have further proof of his humility, and that her father would not have endured, his perverseness;" but Bacon, who knew the depths and soundings of the queen's character, was not dismayed by these ebullitions; he saw, under the agitated surface, a constant under-current of kindness. Bacon's account is as follows: "From this time forth, during the whole latter end of that summer, while the court was at Nonsuch and Oatlands, I made it my task and scope to take and give occasions for my lord's redintegration in 1 In another part of his Apology he says: "And I drew for him, by his appointment, some letters to her majesty; which though I knew well his lordship's gift and style was far better than mine own, yet, because he required it, alleging, that by his long restraint he was grown almost a stranger to the queen's present conceits, I was ready to perform it; and sure I am, that for the space of six weeks or two months it prospered so well, as I expected continually his restoring to his attendance." VOL. I.-(6) tend to cure and corroborate the part.' Good Lord! madam,' said I, 'how wisely and aptly can you speak and discern of physic ministered to the body, and consider not that there is the like occasion of physic ministered to the mind: as now in the case of my lord of Essex, your princely word ever was, that you intended ever to reform his mind, and not ruin his fortune: I know well you cannot but think that you have drawn the humour sufficiently; and therefore it were more than time, and it were but for doubt of mortifying or exulcerating, that you did apply and minister strength and comfort unto him: for these same gradations of yours are fitter to corrupt than correct any mind of greatness."" In the latter end of August, 1600, Essex was summoned to attend at York House, where the lord keeper, the lord treasurer, and secretary signified the queen's pleasure that he should be restored to liberty. He answered that his resolu(D 2) |