76 Amye Robsart. 
wyfe, I doute not but long before this tyme tou have considered what a happy 
hour tt ts, which bringeth man from sorrow to joy, from mortality to immor- 
tality, from care and trouble to rest and quietness: & that the Lord above 
worketh all for the best to them that love him well. I will leave my babbling, 
& bid the buzzard cease to teach the falcon to fly: § so end my rude post- 
scrip.” 
“To my very good Lord & Brother, the Lord Robert Dudley.” 
On this letter I would only make one remark. It is a fair instance 
of the value of private and familiar documents. Official papers are 
always got up with a certain formality of preparation, to meet 
the public eye, or for a purpose. Here is a simple private letter, of 
the very time, naturally written, on an ordinary subject, not likely 
to meet any other eye than that of the person written to, and there- 
fore most unlikely to contain any fictitious or misleading sentiment. 
Being merely a friendly message about such every-day matters as 
pies and a cook, it suddenly turns off, on the receipt of serious news, 
to a tone which would have simply been a piece of sickening 
hypocrisy, if the writer had ever had the faintest inkling of ill-will 
or ill-conduct on the part of Dudley towards his wife. If any such 
feeling had existed it must have been well-known to his own brother- 
in-law. 
There would be, if we could but find it, conclusive evidence upon 
this mysterious story, in the written depositions taken at the coroner’s 
inquest, and the full statements of all who were examined. Some ~ 
years ago I wrote to the Coroner for the County of Berks, to know 
if either in his Office, or in any other depository of County Records, 
he could help me to recover those papers. It so happened that this 
gentleman (Mr. Bartlett) had himself written a book upon the very 
subject, a “ Guide to Cumnor,” and of course had used all efforts to 
find the original papers, but he was afraid it was now hopeless. 
There remains now only one more item of evidence in Dudley’s 
favour, found (also quite accidentally) among the old letters at 
Longleat. It is a very important one as bearing upon our story : 
and it is also another curious instance of the value of secret history. 
One of our living Historians has taken much trouble in dealing 
with Dudley’s case. He has had the benefit of much correspondence 
