144 TWO CHAPTERS ILLUSTRATIVE OP 



bury's murder, with his usual indulgence to the king, Burnett has 

 failed to notice the great point which so materially tends to crimi- 

 nate him. It will be seen by the following account that the bishop 

 has not mentioned the perturbed anxiety* evinced by James at the 

 menacing speeches uttered by Somerset on his commitment to the 

 Tower ; those paroxysms of passion which disclose a mind placed 

 between the rational and the insane. " The king had assured him 

 (Somerset) that he should not come to any tryal, neither durst the 

 king bring him to tryal." This was in an high strain, and in lan- 

 guage not well understood by Sir George More (the lieutenant in 

 Elwary's room). Away then goes More to Greenwich, as late as it 

 was (being twelve at night) ; bounseth at the back stayres, as if 

 mad, to whom came Jo Loveston, one of the grooms, out of his bed, 

 enquires the reason of that distemper at so late a season. More 

 tells him he must speak with the king. Lovestone replyes, ( he is 

 quiet,' (which in the Scottish dialect is fast asleep,) Moore says, 

 ' you must awake him.' Moore was called in, (the chamber left to 

 the king and Moore). He tells the king those passages, and desired 

 to be directed by the king, for he was gone beyond his owne reason to 

 heare such bold and undutiful expressions from a faulty subject 

 against a just soveraigne. The king falls into a passion of tears: 

 ' On my soule, Moore, I wot not what to do ! thou art a wise man, 

 help me in this great straight, and thou shalt finde tbou doest for a 

 thankful master, with other sad expressions. Moore leaves the king 

 in that passion, but assures him he will prove the utmost of his wit 

 to serve his majesty, and was really rewarded with a suit worth to 

 him £1500." 



Now some writers have ascribed the king's extraordinary conduct 

 to guilt, and others to a return of affection for his ancient favorite. 

 Dr. Lingard assigns these emotions to the latter cause ; but has ha- 

 zarded this positive opinion upon a very slender foundation. The 

 stern and bitter exclamation of James at his last parting with So- 

 merset, " The deil go with thee, for I will never see thy face more," 

 is in itself conclusive enough of a breach having taken place be- 

 tween them, which was not to be repaired. And his violent impre- 

 cations to Coke, shortly after the arrest of the earl, " God's curse be 

 upon you and yours, if you spare any of them ; and God's curse be 

 upon me and mine if I pardon any of them,"t further assist our 



* See Weldon and Archeology, vol. xvii, xviii. 



f See Weldon, Court and Character of King James, p. 92, and Coke, Detec- 

 tion, p. 78. Little could Somerset have anticipated any prognostics of his 



