181 CHARGE AGAINST FRANCES 



But to come to the present case ; the great frame 

 of justice, my lords, in this present action, hath a 

 vault, and it hath a stage : a vault, wherein these 

 works of darkness were contrived ; and a stage with 

 steps, by which they were brought to light. And 

 therefore I will bring this work of justice to the 

 period of this day ; and then go on with this day s 

 work. 



Sir Thomas Overbury was murdered by poison 

 in the ]5th of .September, 1613, 1 1 Reg. This foul 

 and cruel murder did, for a time, cry secretly in the 

 ears of God ; but God gave no answer to it, other 

 wise than by that voice, which sometimes he useth, 

 which is &quot; vox populi,&quot; the speech of the people. 

 For there went then a murmur, that Overbury was 

 poisoned : and yet this same submiss and soft voice 

 of God, the speech of the vulgar people, was not 

 without a counter-tenor, or counter-blast of the devil, 

 who is the common author both of murder and slan 

 der : for it was given out, that Overbury was dead 

 of a foul disease, and his body, which they had made 

 a &quot; corpus Judaicum&quot; with their poisons, so as it had 

 no whole part, must be said to be leprosed with vice, 

 and so his name poisoned as well as his body. For as 

 to dissoluteness, I never heard the gentleman noted 

 with it : his faults were insolency and turbulency, 

 and the like of that kind : the other part of the soul, 

 not the voluptuous. 



Mean time, there was some industry used, of 

 which I will not now speak, to lull asleep those that 



