XXIV PREFACE. 



fail in their ends, to have even drawn blood from herself. 

 The gatherings at Essex House had attracted the attention 

 of the Court, and on Saturday the 7th of February Essex was 

 summoned before the Privy Council. He refused to go ; and 

 in the evening, fearing that the Lords knew more than they 

 did, proposed to make the attack. But the guards were 

 doubled at Whitehall, and next morning Charing Cross and 

 Westminster were barricaded. There was nothing now left 

 but to raise the City. At ten o clock on Sunday morning, 

 the Lord Keeper, the Earl of Worcester, Sir William Knollys, 

 and the Lord Chief Justice repaired to Essex House. Essex s 

 men had been running hither and thither all night to summon 

 his friends, and by this time wellnigh three hundred were 

 assembled. The arrival of the Lord Keeper precipitated 

 their action. Essex cried out that he should be murdered 

 in his bed, that his enemies had forged his name, and that 

 he was armed in self-defence. The Lord Keeper promised 

 that he should have justice done, but it was now too late. 

 Essex left him and his companions prisoners, and rushed out 

 with some two hundred followers on foot, crying hysterically 

 that plots were laid against his life, and that the country was 

 sold to the Spaniard. Not a man stirred in his defence. The 

 conspirators marched through the City as far as Fenchurch 

 Street to the house of Sheriff Smith, and there Essex showed 

 signs that his nerve had forsaken him. Making their way 

 back to Ludgate Hill, they found the street closed against 

 them. A fight ensued, in which one or two were slain on 

 either side, Essex was shot through the hat, Blount wounded 

 and taken prisoner. The Earl, with some fifty followers, es 

 caped by water to Essex House, and by ten o clock in the 

 evening surrendered. And so ended this miserable and fatal 

 impatience. But there was evidently a mystery which the 

 Court had not penetrated, and to unravel it Bacon with others 

 of her Majesty s counsel was employed. They soon dis 

 covered the true nature of the plot. Judgement followed 

 swiftly upon the offenders. On the ipth of February Essex 

 and Southampton were arraigned. The evidence against 



