EARL OF SOMERSET. 213 



nor stir, where he could not feed but by their 

 hands, where he could not speak nor write but 

 through their trunks ; then was the time to execute 

 the last act of this tragedy. 



Then must Franklin be purveyor of the poisons, 

 and procure five, six, seven several potions, to be sure 

 to hit his complexion. Then must Mrs. Turner be the 

 say-mistress of the poisons to try upon poor beasts, 

 what is present, and what works at distance of time. 

 Then must Weston be the tormentor, and chase him 

 with poison after poison ; poison in salts, poison in 

 meats, poison in sweetmeats, poison in medicines and 

 vomits, until at last his body was almost come, by 

 use of poisons, to the state that Mithridates s body 

 was by the use of treacle and preservatives, that the 

 force of the poisons, were blunted upon him : Wes 

 ton confessing, when he was chid for not dispatching 

 him, that he had given him enough to poison twenty 

 men. Lastly, because all this asked time, courses 

 were taken by Somerset, both to divert all means of 

 Overbury s delivery, and to entertain Overbury by 

 continual letters, partly of hopes and projects for 

 his delivery, and partly of other fables and negocia- 

 tions ; somewhat like some kind of persons, which I 

 will not name, which keep men in talk of fortune- 

 telling, when they have a felonious meaning. 



And this is the true narrative of this act of ira- 

 poisonment, which I have summarily recited. 



Now for the distribution of the proofs, there are 

 four heads of proofs to prove you guilty, my lord of 

 Somerset, of this impoisonment ; whereof two are 



