212 CHARGE AGAINST ROBERT 



was devised, that Overbury should be designed to 

 some honourable employment in foreign parts, and 

 should under-hand by the lord of Somerset be encou 

 raged to refuse it ; and so upon that contempt he 

 should be laid prisoner in the Tower, and then they 

 would look he should be close enough, and death 

 should be his bail. Yet were they not at their end. 

 For they considered that if there was not a fit 

 lieutenant of the Tower for their purpose, and like 

 wise a fit under-keeper of Overbury ; first, they 

 should meet with many impediments in the giving 

 and exhibiting the poison. Secondly, they should 

 be exposed to note and observation that might 

 discover them. And thirdly, Overbury in the mean 

 time might write clamourous and furious letters to 

 other his friends, and so all might be disappointed. 

 And therefore the next link of the chain was to 

 displace the then lieutenant Waade, and to place 

 Helwisse, a principal abettor in the impoisonment ; 

 again, to displace Gary, that was the under-keeper 

 in Waade s time, and to place Weston, who was the 

 principal actor in the impoisonment : and this was 

 done in such a while, that it may appear to be 

 done, as it were, with one breath, as there were but 

 fifteen days between the commitment of Overbury, 

 the displacing of Waade, the placing of Helwisse, 

 the displacing of Gary the under-keeper, the 

 placing of Weston, and the first poison given two 

 days after. 



Then when they had this poor gentleman in the 

 Tower close prisoner, where he could not escape 



