TRIAL OF ESSEX. XC1 



and in my letter he did plead for me feelingly against 

 those enemies, and pointed them out as particularly as was 

 possible ; which letters I know Mr. Secretary Cecil (a) hath 

 seen, and by them it will appear what conceit Mr. Bacon 

 held of me, so different from what he here coloureth and 

 pleadeth against me.&quot; (b) 



To this charge, urged in violation of the most sacred 

 confidence, which Essex well knew would render Bacon 

 obnoxious to the Queen, and suspected by all parties, he 

 instantly and indignantly replied, &quot; My lord, I spent more 

 hours to make you a good subject, than upon any man in 

 the world besides ; but since you have stirred up this point, 

 I dare warrant you this letter will not blush to see the light, 

 for I did but perform the part of an honest man, and ever 

 laboured to have done you good if it might have been, and 

 to no other end ; for what I intended for your good was 

 wished from the heart, without touch of any man s honour.&quot; 

 After this unjustifiable disclosure, which severed the last 

 link between them, Bacon only spoke once, and with a 

 bitterness that showed how deeply he was wounded, (c) 



(a) Essex added to this charge against Bacon a charge calculated, if 

 true, to ruin Cecil, whom he asserted to have said, that the Infanta of 

 Spain had as much right to the crown of England as any of her competi 

 tors : a charge refuted by Cecil, with the spirit and dignity of conscious 

 integrity. He said to the Earl of Essex, &quot; For wit, wherewith you certainly 

 abound, I am your inferior ; I am inferior to you in nobility, yet noble I 

 am ; a military man I am not, and herein you go before me : yet doth my 

 innocency protect me; and in this court I stand an upright man, and you 

 a delinquent.&quot; 



(6) See ante, p. Ixxix. 



(c) Years after the trial he complained of this injurious treatment to the 

 Earl of Devonshire, and Camden says, &quot; Surely all this was done like a 

 friend, while he studied to put Essex in grace with the Queen.&quot; Camden 

 concludes the narrative with these words : &quot; These things whereat I was 

 present myself, I have with uncorrupted fidelity compendiously related, and 

 have willingly omitted nothing.&quot; Apology, p. 170, and Camden, p. 186. 



