186 CHARGE AGAINST FRANCES 



for acquaintance as an honest worthy gentleman; 

 and desired him to know him, and to be acquainted 

 with him. That counsellor answered him civilly, 

 that my lord did him a favour ; and that he should 

 embrace it willingly : but he must let his lordship 

 know., that there did lie a heavy imputation upon 

 that gentleman, Helwisse ; for that Sir Thomas Over- 

 bury, his prisoner, was thought to have come to a 

 violent and untimely death. When this speech was 

 reported back by my lord of Shrewsbury to Helwisse, 

 &quot; perculit illico animum,&quot; he was stricken with it ; 

 and being a politic man, and of likelihood doubting 

 that the matter would break forth at one time or 

 other, and that others might have the start of him, 

 and thinking to make his own case by his own tale, 

 resolved with himself, upon this occasion, to discover 

 to my lord of Shrewsbury and that counsellor, that 

 there was an attempt, whereto he was privy, to have 

 poisoned Overbury by the hands of his under-keeper 

 Weston ; but that he checked it, and put it by, and 

 dissuaded it, and related so much to him indeed : but 



at London, May 13, 1613, speaks of Sir Gervase s promotion in 

 these terms. &quot; One Sir Gervase Helwisse, of Lincolnshire, some- 

 &quot; what an unknown man, is put into the place [of Sir W. 

 &quot; Waade s] by the favour of the lord chamberlain [earl of So- 

 &quot; merset] and his lady. The gentleman is of too mild and gen- 

 &quot; tie a disposition for such an office. He is my old friend and 

 &quot; acquaintance in France, and lately renewed in town, where he 

 &quot; hath lived past a year, nor followed the court many a day.&quot; 

 Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter of the 14th of May, 1613, [&quot; ubi 

 &quot; supra,&quot; p. &amp;lt;23.] says, that Sir Gervase had been before one of 

 the pensioners. 



