PREFACE, >: 
creasing too, and in September 1598 he was arrested on his 
way from the Tower, where he had been engaged in the in- 
vestigation of a plot for the murder of the Queen. He com- 
plained of the indignity thus offered him to Sir Robert Cecil 
and the Lord Keeper Egerton, but how he was relieved from ~ 
it we have no information. A history of the conspiracy from 
his pen appeared in the following year. 
In the spring of 1599 Essex set out on his disastrous exped- 
ition to Ireland. Bacon had already so far renewed his 
intercourse with the Earl as to write him two letters of 
advice. A third Cassandra-like note of warning was sounded 
just before his departure, containing two maxims which Essex 
was only too apt to forget, ‘that merit is worthier than 
fame,’ and ‘that obedience is better than sacrifice.’ He 
landed in Dublin on the 15th of April, and on the 28th of 
September he startled the Queen at Nonsuch, by rushing 
travel-stained into her chamber while she was dressing, ‘her 
hair about her face,’ as a letter-writer of the time tells us. 
And what had he done meanwhile? Practically, as Mr. Sped- 
ding puts it, ‘whatever might be said in justification of this 
or that item of the account, the totals must stand thus:— 
Expended, 300,000/. and ten or twelve thousand men; re- 
ceived, a suspension of hostilities for six weeks, with promise 
of a fortnight’s notice before recommencing them, and a 
verbal communication from Tyrone of the conditions upon ° 
which he was willing to make peace.’ Between ten and 
eleven o’clock the same night he was ordered to keep his 
room. His first plan of bringing over with him a part of 
the army to enable him to make conditions with the govern- 
ment, had been abandoned by the advice of his stepfather 
Blount, and his friend Southampton. But he took with him 
a strong body-guard of trusty men, ‘who might have secured 
him against any commitment.’ On the 1st of October he 
was placed in the custody of the Lord Keeper at York 
House. Bacon, who at this time had constant access to the 
Queen, was charged by popular rumour with irritating her 
against Essex. ‘According to the ordinary charities of 
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