THE CHARGE OF SIR FRANCIS BACON, KNIGHT, 



HIS MAJESTY S ATTORNEY-GENERAL, 

 AGAINST FRANCES COUNTESS OF SOMERSET, 



INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN SPOKEN 

 BY HIM AT HER ARRAIGNMENT, ON FRIDAY, 

 MAY 24, 1616, IN CASE SHE HAD 

 PLEADED NOT GUILTY.* 



It may please your Grace, my Lord High Steward of England^, 

 and you my Lords the Peers : 



You have heard the indictment against this lady 

 well opened ; and likewise the point in law, that might 

 make some doubt, declared and solved ; wherein 

 certainly the policy of the law of England is much 

 to be esteemed, which requireth and respecteth form 

 in the indictment, and substance in the proof. 



This scruple it may be hath moved this lady to 

 plead not guilty, though for the proof I shall not 

 need much more than her own confession, which 

 she hath formerly made, free and voluntary, and 

 therein given glory to God and justice. And cer 

 tainly confession, as it is the strongest foundation of 

 justice, so it is a kind of corner-stone, whereupon 

 justice and mercy may meet. 



* She pleaded guilty, on which occasion the attorney-general 

 spoke a charge somewhat different from this. 



f Thomas Egerton, Viscount Ellesmere, lord high chancellor. 



