BUSHEL S ACCOUNT. ccclxxv 



first, so I may be the last of sacrifices in your times: 

 and when, from private appetite, it is resolved that a 

 creature shall be sacrificed, it is easy to pick up sticks 

 enough from any thicket whither it hath strayed, to make 

 a fire to offer it with.&quot; 



From these observations it may be seen, that there was 

 a conflict in the minds of these excellent men between 

 their inclination to speak and their duty to be silent. 

 They did not violate this duty; but one of his most sincere 

 and grateful admirers, who, although he had painfully, but 

 sacredly, preserved the secret from his youth to his old 

 age, at last thus spoke : (a) 



&quot; Before this could be accomplished to his own content, Bushel. 

 there arose such complaints against his lordship, and the 

 then favourite at court, that for some days put the King 

 to this quere, whether he should permit the favourite of 

 his affection, or the oracle of his council, to sink in his 

 service; whereupon his lordship was sent for by the King, 

 who, after some discourse, gave him this positive advice, 

 to submit himself to his house of peers, and that, upon 

 his princely word, he would then restore him again, if 

 they, in their honours, should not be sensible of his 

 merits. Now, though my lord saw his approaching ruin, 

 and told his majesty there was little hopes of mercy in 

 a multitude, when his enemies were to give fire, if he 

 did not plead for himself: yet such was his obedience to 

 him from whom he had his being, that he resolved his 

 majesty s will should be his only law; and so took leave 

 of him with these words : Those that will strike at your 

 chancellor, it is much to be feared, will strike at your 

 crown ; and wished, that as he was then the first, so he 

 might be the last of sacrifices. 



0) For an account of Bushel, see note G G G . At the time of Bacon s 

 death, in 1626, he was about twenty-six years of age: he published the 

 tract in 1659. 



