XC LIFE OF BACON. 



the crown; he saw only an ungrateful man, whom the 

 fiend ambition had possessed, and knew that the name of 

 that fiend was &quot; Legion.&quot; 



19th Feb. On the 19th of February Essex and Southampton were 

 arraigned, and, upon the trial, one of the conspirators, 

 allured by the hope of life, made a full disclosure of all 

 their treasons, (a) 



Unable to deny facts clearly proved against him, Essex 

 could insist only upon his motives, which he urged with 

 the utmost confidence. He repeated his former assertion, 

 that there was a plot against his life, and that Cecil, 

 Cobham, and Raleigh had driven him to desperate mea 

 sures. Bacon, who appeared as one of the counsel for the 

 crown, resisted these imputations, and said, &quot; It is evident, 

 my lord of Essex, that you had planted in your heart a 

 pretence against the government of your country; and, as 

 Pisistratus, calculating upon the affections of the people, 

 shewed himself wounded in the streets of Athens, so you 

 entered the city with the vain hope that the citizens would 

 join in your rebellion. Indeed, my lord, all that you have 

 said, or can say in these matters are but shadows, and 

 therefore methinks it were your best course to confess, and 

 not to justify.&quot; 



Essex here interrupted him, and said, &quot; The speech of 

 Mr. Bacon calls upon me to defend myself; and be it known, 

 my lords, I call upon him to be a witness for me, for he 

 being a daily courtier, and having free access to her majesty, 

 undertook to go to the Queen in my behalf, and did write 

 a letter most artificially, which was subscribed with my 

 name, also another letter was drawn by him to occasion 

 that letter with others that should come from his brother, 

 Mr. Anthony Bacon, both which he shewed the Queen, 



(a) See note 4 F at the end, for an account of the trial . 







