346 DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS 



of the house against her majesty s forces under the 

 charge and conduct of the lord-lieutenant. 



And albeit these parts were matters notorious, 

 and within almost every man s view and knowledge ; 

 yet, for the better satisfaction of the peers, they were 

 fully proved by the oath of the lord chief justice of 

 England, being there present, &quot; viva voce,&quot; and the 

 declaration of the Earl of Worcester, being one of 

 the peers likewise, &quot; viva voce,&quot; touching so much as 

 passed about the imprisonment of themselves and 

 the rest ; and by the confessions of the earl of Rut 

 land, the lord Sandys, the lord Cromwell, and others. 



The defence of the late earl of Essex, touching 

 the plot and consultation at Drury-house, was : 

 That it was not proved that he was at it ; and that 

 they could shew nothing, proving his consent or pri 

 vity, under his hand. 



Touching the action in the city, he justified the 

 pretext of the danger of his life to be a truth. He 

 said that his speech, that the realm should have been 

 sold to the Infanta of Spain, was grounded upon a 

 report he had heard, that sir Robert Cecil should say 

 privately, That the Infanta s title to the crown, after 

 her majesty, was as good as any other. He excused 

 the imprisonment of the counsellors to have been 

 against his mind, forced upon him by his unruly com 

 pany. He protested he never intended in his heart 

 any hurt to her majesty s person ; that he did desire 

 to secure his access to her, for which purpose he 

 thought to pray the help of the city, and that he 



