certainly I offended her at that time which was rare with me for I call to mind that both the Christmas Lent and Easter Term following though I came divers times to her upon Law business yet me thought her face and manner was not so clear and open to me as it was at the first And she did directly charge me that I was absent that day at the Star-chamber which was very true but I alledged some indisposition of body to excuse it and during all the time aforesaid there was altum silentium from her to me touching my Lord of Essex causes But towards the end of Easter Term her Majesty brake with me and told me that she had found my words true for that the proceeding in the Star-chamber had done no good but rather kindled factious bruits as she termed them than quenched them and therefore that she was determined now for the satisfaction of the world to proceed against my Lord in the Star-chamber by an information ore tenus and to have my Lord brought to his answer howbeit she said she would assure me that whatsoever she did should be towards my Lord ad castigationem non ad destructionem as indeed she had often repeated the same phrase before whereunto I said to the end utterly to divert her Madam if you will have me speak to you in this argument I must speak to you as Frier Bacons head spake that said first Time is and then Time was and Time would never be for certainly said I it is now far too late the matter is cold and hath taken too much wind whereat she seemed again offended and rose from me and that resolution for a while continued and after in the beginning of Midsummer Tearm I attending her and finding her settled in that resolution which I heard of also otherwise she falling upon the like speech it is true that seeing no other remedy I said to her slightly Why Madam if you will needs have a proceeding you were best have it in some such sort as Ovid spake of his Mistress Est aliquid luce patente minus to make a Counsel-table matter of it and there an end which speech again she seemed to take in ill part but yet I think it did good at that time and helped to divert that course of proceeding by information in the Star-chamber Nevertheless afterwards it pleas'd her to make a more solemn matter of the proceeding and some few days after when order was given that the matter should be heard at York-house before an Assembly of Councellers Peers and Judges and some audience of men of quality to be admitted and then did some principal Councellers send for us of the learned Councel and notifie her Majesties pleasure unto us save that it was said to me openly by one of them that her Majesty was not yet resolved whether she would have me forborn in the business or no. And hereupon might arise that other sinister and untrue speech that I hear is raised of me how I was a Suiter to be used against my Lord of Essex at that time for it is very true that I that knew well what had passed between the Queen and me and what occasion I had given her both of distast and distrust in crossing her disposition by standing steadfastly for my Lord of Essex and suspecting it also to be a stratagem arising from some particular emulation I writ to her two or three words of complement signifying to her Majesty that if she would be pleased to spare me in my Lord of Essex cause out of the consideration she took of my obligation towards him I should reckon it for one of her greatest favours but otherwise desiring her Majesty to think that I knew the degrees of duties and that no particular obligation whatsoever to any subject could supplant or weaken that entireness of duty that I did owe and bear to her and her service and this was the goodly suite I made being a respect no man that had his wits could have omitted but nevertheless I had a further reach in it for I judged that days work would be a full period of any bitterness or harshness between the Queen and my Lord and therefore if I declared my self fully according to her mind at that time which could not do my Lord any manner of prejudice I should keep my credit with her ever after whereby to do my Lord service Hereupon the next news that I heard was that we were all sent for again and that her Majesties pleasure was we all should have parts in the business and the Lords falling into distribution of our parts it was allotted to me that I should set forth some undutiful carriages of my Lord in giving occasion and countenance to a seditious Pamphlet as it was termed which was dedicated unto him which was the Book before mentioned of King Henry the fourth Whereupon I replyed to that allotment and said to their Lordships that it was an old matter and had no manner of coherence with the rest of the Charge being matters of Ireland therefore that I having been wronged by bruits before this would expose me to them more and it would be said I gave in evidence mine own tales It was answered again with good shew that because it was considered how I stood tyed to my Lord of Essex therefore that part was thought fittest for me which did him least hurt for that whereas all the rest was matter of Charge and Accusation this only was but matter of Caveat and Admonition Wherewith though I was in mine one mind little satisfied because I knew well a man were better to be charged with some faults than admonished of some others yet the conclusion binding upon the Queens pleasure directly volens nolens I could not avoid that part that was laid upon me which part if in the delivery I did handle not tenderly though no man before me did in so clear tearms free my Lord from all disloyalty as I did that your Lordship knoweth must be ascribed to the superiour duty I did owe to the Queens fame and honour in a publick proceeding and partly to the intention I had to uphold my self in credit and strength with the Queen the better to be able to do my Lord good offices afterwards for as soon as this day was past I lost no time but the very next day following as I remember I attended her Majesty fully resolved to try and put in ure my utmost endeavour so far as I in my weakness could give furtherance to bring my Lord again speedily into Court and Favour and knowing as I supposed at least how the Queen was to be used I thought that to make her conceive that the matter went well then was the way to make her leave off there and I remember well I said to her you have now Madam obtained victory over two things which the greatest Princes in the world cannot at their wills subdue the one is
and the sharpness of their sword and had the natural elemental advantages of woods and boggs and hardness of bodies they ever found they had their hands full of them and therefore concluded that going over with such expectation as he did and through the churlishness of the enterprise not like to answer it would mightily diminish his reputation and many other reasons I used so as I am sure I never in any thing in my life time dealt with him in like earnestness by speech by writing and by all the means I could devise For I did as plainly see his overthrow chained as it were by destiny to that journey as it is possible for a man to ground a judgement upon future contingents But my Lord howsoever his ear was open yet his heart and resolution was shut against that advise whereby his ruin might have been prevented After my Lords going I saw then how true a Prophet I was in regard of the evident alteration which naturally succeeded in the Queens mind and thereupon I was still in watch to find the best occasion that in the weakness of my power I could either take or minister to pull him out of the fire if it had been possible and not long after me thought I saw some overture thereof which I apprehended readily a particularity I think be known to very few and the which I do the rather relate unto your Lordship because I hear it should be talked that while my Lord was in Ireland I revealed some matters against him or I cannot tell what which if it were not a mear slander as the rest is but had any though never so little colour was surely upon this occasion The Queen one day at Nonesuch a little as I remember before Cuffes coming over I attending on her shewed a passionare distast of my Lords proceedings in Ireland as if they were unfortunate without judgment contemptuous and not without some private end of his own and all that might be and was pleased as she spake of it to many that she trusted least so to fall into the like speech with me whereupon I who was still awake and true to my grounds which I thought surest for my Lords good said to this effect Madam I know not the particulars of Estate and I know this that Princes actions must have no abrupt periods or conclusions but otherwise I would think that if you had my Lord of Essex here with a white staff in his hand as my Lord of Leicester had and continued him still about you for society to your self and for an honor and ornament to your Attendance and Court in the eyes of your people and in the eyes of forraign Ambassadors than were he in his right element for to dâ— content him as you do and yet to put arms and power into his hands may be a kind of temptation to make him prove combersome and unruly And therefore if you would â—mp nere bâ—nam clausulam and send for him and satisfie him with honour here near you if your affairs which as I have said I am not acquainted with will permit it I think were the best way Which course your Lordship knoweth if it had been taken then all had been well and no contempt in my Lords coming over nor continuance of these jealousies which that employment of Ireland bred and my Lord here in his former greatness Well the next news that I heard was that my Lord was come over and that he was committed to his Chamber for leaving Ireland without the Queens licence this was at Nonesuch where as my duty was I came to his Lordship and talked with him privately about a quarter of an hour and he asked mine opinion of the course was taken with him I told him My Lord Nubecula est cito transibit it is but a mist but shall I tell your Lordship it is as mists are if it go upwards it may perhaps cause a snowre if downwards it will clear up And therefore good my Lord carry it so as you take away by all means all umbrages and distasts from the Queen and especially if I were worthy to advise you as I have been by your self thought and now your question imports the continuance of that opinion observe three points First make not this cessation or peace which is concluded with Tyrone as a service wherein you glory but as a shuffling up of a prosecution which was not very fortunate Next represent not to the Queen any necessity of estate whereby as by a coercion or wrench she should think her self inforced to send you back into Ireland but leave it to her Thirdly sâ—ck accesse importune opportunâ— seriously sportingly every way I remember my Lord was willing to hear me but spake very few words and shaked his head sometimes as if he thought I was in the wrong but sure I am he did just contrary in every one of these three points After this during the while since my Lord was committed to my Lord Keepers I came divers times to the Queen as I had used to do about causes of her revenue and law business as is well known by reason of which accesses according to the ordinary charities of Court it was given out that I was one of them that incensed the Queen against my Lord of Essex These speeches I cannot tell nor I will not think that they grew any way from her Majesties own speeches whose memory I will ever honour if they did she is with God and miserum est ab illis laedi de quibus non possis queri But I must give this testimony to my Lord Cecil that one time in his house at the Savoy he dealt with me directly and said to me Cousin I hear it but I believe it not that you should do some ill office to my Lord of Essex for my part I am meerly passive and not active in this action and I follow the Queen and that heavi y and I lead her not my Lord of Essex is one that in nature I could consent with as well as with any one living the Queen indeed is my Soveraign and I am her creature I may not lose her and the same course I would wish you to take whereupon I satisfied him how far I was from any such mind And as sometimes it cometh to pass that mens inclinations are opened more in a toy than in a serious matter A little before that time being about the midle of Michaelmas Term her Majesty had a purpose to dine at my lodge at Twicknam Park at which time I had though I profess not to be a Poet prepared a Sonnet directly tending and alluding to draw on her Majesties reconcilement to my Lord which I remember also shewed to a great person one of my Lords nearest friends who commended it this though it be as I said but a toy yet it shewed plainly in what spirit I proceeded and that I was ready not only to do my Lord
over Fame the other is over a great Mind for surely the world is now I hope reasonably well satisfied and for my Lord he did shew that humiliation towards your Majesty as I am perswaded he was never in his life time more fit for your favour than he is now therefore if your Majesty will not marr it by lingring but give over at the best and now you have made so good a full point receive him again with tenderness I shall then think that all that is past is for the best Whereat I remember she took exceeding great contentment and did often iterate and put me in mind that she had ever said that her proceedings should be ad reparationem and not ad ruinam as who saith that now was the time I should well perceive that that saying of hers should prove true And further she willed me to set down in writing all that passed that day I obeyed her commandment and within some few days brought her again the narration which I did read unto her at two several afternoons and when I came to that part that set forth my Lords own answer which was my principal care I do well bear in mind that she was extraordinarily moved with it in kindness and relenting towards my Lord and told me afterwards speaking how well I had expressed my Lords part that she perceived old love would not easily be forgotten whereto I answered suddenly that I hoped she meant that by her self But in conclusion I did advise her that now she had taken a representation of the matter to her self that she would let it go no further for Madam said I the fire blazeth well already what should you tumble it and besides it may please you keep to a convenience with your self in this case for since your express direction was there should be no Register nor Clarke to take this Sentence nor no Record or Memorial made up of the Proceeding why should you now do that popularly which you would not admit to be done judicially Whereupon she did agree that that writing should be suppressed and I think there were not five persons that ever saw it But from this time forth during the whole latter end of that Summer while the Court was at Nonsuch and Otlands I made it my task and scope to take and give occasions for my Lords reintegration in his fortune which my intention I did also signifie to my Lord assoon as ever he was at his liberty whereby I might without peril of the Queens indignation write to him and having received from his Lordship a courteous and loving acception of my good will and indeavours I did apply it in all my accesses to the Queen which were very many at that time and purposely sought and wrought upon other variable pretences but only and chiefly for that purpose And on the otherside I did not forbear to give my Lord from time to time faithful advertisement what I found and what I wished And I drew for him by his appointment some letters to her Majesty which though I knew well his Lordships gift and stile was far better than mine own yet because he required it alledging that by his long restraint he was grown almost a stranger to the Queens present conceipts I was ready to perform it and sure I am that for the space of six weeks or two months it prospered so well as I expected continually his restoring to his attendance And I was never better welcome to the Queen nor more made of than when I spake fullest and boldest for him in which kind the particulars were exceeding many whereof for an example I will remember to your Lordship one or two as at one time I call to mind her Majesty was speaking of a Fellow that undertook to Cure or at least to Ease my Brother of his Gout and asked me how it went forward and I told her Majesty that at the first he received good by it but after in the course of his Cure he found himself at a stay or rather worse the Queen said again I will tell you Bacon the errour of it the manner of these Physitians and especially these Empericks is to continue one kind of Medicine which at the first is proper being to draw out the ill humor but after they have not the discretion to change their Medicine but apply still drawing Medicines when they should rather intend to cure and corroborate the part Good Lord Madam said I how wisely and aptly can you speak and discern of Physick ministred to the body and consider not that there is the like occasion of Physick ministred to the mind as now in the case of my Lord of Essex your Princely word ever was that you intended ever to reform his mind and not ruin his fortune I know well you cannot but think that you have drawn the humor sufficiently and therefore it were more than time and it were but for doubt of mortifying or exulcerating that you did apply and minister strength and comfort unto him for these same gradations of yours are fitter to corrupt than correct any mind of greatness And another time I remember she told me for news that my Lord had written unto her some very dutiful Letters and that she had been moved by them and when she took it to be the abundance of the heart she found it to be but a preparative to a suit for the renuing of his Farm of sweet Wines whereunto I replyed O Madam how doth your Majesty construe these things as if these two could not stand well together which indeed nature hath planted in all creatures For there are but two sympathies the one towards Perfection the other towards Preservation That to Perfection as the Iron contendeth to the Loadstone that to Preservation as the Vine will creep towards a stake or prop that stands by it not for any love to the stake but to uphold it self And therefore Madam you must distinguish my Lords desire to do you service is as to his perfection that which he thinks himself to be born for whereas his desire to obtain this thing of you is but for a sustentation And not to trouble your Lordship with many other particulars like unto these it was at the self same time that I did draw with my Lords privity and by his appointment two letters the one written as from my Brother the other as an answer returned from my Lord both to be by me in secret manner shewed to the Queen which it pleased my Lord very strangely to mention at the Bar the scope of which were but to represent and picture forth unto her Majesty my Lords mind to be such as I knew her Majesty would fainest have had it which letters whosoever shall see for they cannot now be retracted or altered being by reason of my Brothers or his Lordships servants delivery long since come into divers hands let him judge especially if he knew the Queen and do remember
those times whether they were not the labours of one that sought to bring the Queen about for my Lord of Essex his good The troth is that the issue of all his dealing grew to this that the Queen by some slackness of my Lords as I imagine liked him worse and worse and grew more incensed towards him Then she remembring belike the continual and incessant and confident speeches and courses that I had held on my Lords side became utterly alienated from me and for the space of at least three months which was between Michaelmas and New-years-tide following would not so much as look on me but turned away from me with express and purpose-like discountenance wheresoever she saw me and at such time as I desired to speak with her about Law-business ever sent me forth very slight refusals insomuch as it is most true that immediately after New-years tide I desired to speak with her and being admitted to her I dealt with her plainly and said Madam I see you withdraw your favour from me and now I have lost many friends for your sake I shall lose you too you have put me like one of those that the French-men call Enfans perdus that serve on foot before horsemen so have you put me into matters of envy without place or without strength and I know at Chess a pawn before the King is ever much plaid upon a great many love me not because they think I have been against my Lord of Essex and you love me not because you know I have been for him yet will I never repent me that I have dealt in simplicity of heart towards you both without respect of cautions to my self and therefore vivus vidensque pereo If I do break my neck I shall do it in a manner as Master Dorrington did it which walked on the Battlements of the Church many days and took a view and survey where he should fall and so Madam said I I am not so simple but that I take a prospect of mine overthrow only I thought I would tell you so much that you may know that it was faith and not folly that brought me into it and so I will pray for you Upon which speeches of mine uttered with some passion it is true her Majesty was exceedingly moved and accumulated a number of kind and gracious words upon me and willed me to rest upon this Gratia mea sufficit and a number of other sensible and tender words and demonstrarions such as more could not be but as touching my Lord of Essex ne verbum quidem Whereupon I departed resting then determined to meddle no more in the matter as that that I saw would overthrow me and not be able to do him any good And thus I made mine own peace with mine own confidence at that time and this was the last time I saw her Majesty before the eight of February which was the day of my Lord of Essex his misfortune after which time for that I performed at the Bar in my publick service your Lordship knoweth by the rules of duty that I was to do it honestly and without prevarication but for any putting my self into it I protest before God I never moved either the Queen or the person living concerning my being used in the service either of evidence or examination but it was meerly laid upon me with the rest of my fellows And for the time which passed I mean between the arraignment and my Lords suffering I well remember I was but once with the Queen at what time though I durst not deal directly for my Lord as things then stood yet generally I did both commend her Majesties mercy terming it to her as an excellent balm that did continually distill from her Soveraign hands and made an excellent odour in the senses of her people and not only so but I took hardness to extenuate not the fact for that I durst not but the danger telling her that if some base or cruel minded persons had entered into such an action it might have caused much blood and combustion but it appeared well they were such as knew not how to play the Malefactors and some other words which I now omit And as for the rest of the carriage of my self in that service I have many honorable witnesses that can tell that the next day after my Lords arraignment by my diligence and information touching the quality and nature of the offendors six of nine were stayed which otherwise had been attainted I bringing their Lordships letter for their stay after the Jury was sworn to pass upon them so near it went and how careful I was and made it my part that whosoever was in trouble about that matter assoon as ever his case was sufficiently known and defined of might not continue in restraint but be set at liberty and many other parts which I am well assured of stood with the duty of an honest man But indeed I will not deny for the case of Sir Thomas Smith of London the Queen demanding my opinion of it I told her I thought it was as hard as many of the rest but what was the reason because at that time I had seen only his accusation and had never been present at any examination of his and the matter so standing I had been very untrue to my service if I had not delivered that opinion But afterwards upon a re-examination of some that charged him who weakned their own testimony and especially hearing himself viva voce I went instantly to the Queen out of the soundness of my conscience and not regarding what opinion I had formerly delivered told her Majesty I was satified and resolved in my conscience that for the reputation of the action the plot was to countenance the action further by him in respect of his place than they had indeed any interest or intelligence with him It is very true also about that time her Majesty taking a liking of my Pen upon that which I had done before concerning the proceeding at York-house and likewise upon some other declarations which in former times by her appointment I put in writing commanded me to pen that book which was published for the better satisfaction of the world which I did but so as never Secretary had more particular and express directions and instructions in every point how to guide my hand in it and not only so but after that I had made a first draught thereof and propounded it to certain principal Councellors by her Majesties appointment it was perused weighed censured altered and made almost anew writing according to their Lordships better consideration wherein their Lordships and my self both were as religious and curious of truth as desirous of satisfaction and my self indeed gave only words and form of stile in pursuing their direction And after it had passed their allowance it was again exactly perused by the Queen her self and some alterations made again by her appointment nay and after it was set to print the Queen who as your Lordship knoweth as she was excellent in great matters so she was exquisite in small and noted that I could not forget my ancient respect to my Lord of Essex in terming him ever my Lord of Essex my Lord of Essex almost in every page of the Book which she thought not fit but would have it made Essex or the late Earl of Essex whereupon of force it was printed de novo and the first copies suppressed by her peremptory commandment And this my good Lord to my furthest remembrance is all that passed wherein I had part which I have set down as near as I could in the very words and speeches that were used not because they are worthy the repetition I mean those of mine own but to the end your Lordship may lively and plainly discern between the face of truth and a smooth tale And the rather also because in things that passed a good while since the very words and phrases did sometimes bring to my remembrance the matters wherein I report me to your honorable judgement whether you do not see the traces of an honest man and had I been as well believed either by the Queen or by my Lord as I was well heard by them both both my Lord had been fortunate and so had my self in his fortune To conclude therefore I humbly pray your Lordship to pardon me for troubling you with this long Narration and that you will vouchsafe to hold me in your good opinion till you know I have deserved or finde that I shall deserve the contrary and even so I continue At your Lordships Honourable commandments very humbly
THE APOLOGY OF Sr. FRANCIS BACON Kt. In certain Imputations concerning the late Earl of Essex WRITTEN To the Right Honourable his very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant of Ireland LONDON Printed by S. G. B. G. for William Lee and are to be sold at the sign of the Turks-Head in Fleet-street over against Fetter-Lane 1670. To the Right Honourable his very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant of Ireland IT may please your good Lordship I cannot be ignorant and ought to be sensible of the wrong which I sustain in common speech as if I had been false or unthankful to that noble but unfortunate Earl the Earl of Essex and for satisfying the vulgar sort I do not so much regard it though I love a good name but yet as an handmaid and attendant of honesty and vertue For I am of his opinion that said pleasantly That it was a shame to him that was a Suiter to the Mistriss to make love to the Waiting woman and therefore to woe or court common fame otherwise then it followeth on honest courses I for my part find not my self fit nor disposed But on the other side there is no worldly thing that concerneth my self which I hold more dear than the good opinion of certain persons amongst which there is none I would more willingly give satisfaction unto then to your Lordship First because you loved my Lord of Essex and therefore will not be partial towards me which is part of that I desire next because it hath ever pleased you to shew your self to me an honorable friend and so no baseness in me to seek to satisfie you and lastly because I know your Lordship is exccellently grounded in the true rules and habits of duties and moralities which must be they which shall decide this matter wherein my Lord my defence needeth to be but simple and brief namely that whatsoever I did concerning that action and proceeding was done in my duty and service to the Queen and the State in which I would not shew my self false-hearted nor faint-hearted for any mans sake living For every honest man that hath his heart well planted will forsake his King rather than forsake God and forsake his friend rather than forsake his King and yet wil forsake any earthly commodity yea and his own life in some cases rather than forsake his friend I hope the world hath not forgotten these degrees else the heathen saying Amicus usque ad aras shall judge them And if any man shall say I did officiously intrude my self into that business because I had no ordinary place the like may be said of all the business in effect that passed the hands of the learned Councel either of State or Revenues these many years wherein I was continually used For as your Lordship may remember the Queen knew her strength so well as she looked her word should be a warrant and after the manner of the choisest Princes before her did not always tye her trust to place but did sometime divide private favour from office And I for my part though I was not so unseen in the world but I knew the condition was subject to envy and peril yet because I knew again she was constant in her favours and made an end were she began and especially because she upheld me with extraordinary access and other demonstrations of confidence and grace I resolved to indure it in expectation of better But my scope and desire is that your Lordship would be pleased to have the honourable patience to know the truth in some particularity of all that passed in this cause wherein I had any part that you may perceive how honest a heart I ever bear to my Soveraign and to my Country and to that Noble man who had so well deserved of me and so well accepted of my deservings whose fortune I cannot remember without much grief But for any action of mine towards him there is nothing that passed me in my life time that cometh to my remembrance with more clearness and less check of conscience for it will appear to your Lordship that I was not only not opposite to my Lord of Essex but that I did occupy the utmost of my wits and adventure my fortune with the Queen to have reintegrated his and so continued faithfully and industriously till his last fatal impatience for so I will call it after which day there was not time to work for him though the same my affection when it could not work on the subject proper went to the next with no ill effect towards some others who I think do rather not know it than not acknowledge it And this I will assure your Lordship I will leave nothing untold that is truth for any enemy that I have to adde and on the other side I must reserve much which makes for me in many respects of duty which I esteem above my credit and what I have here set down to your Lordship I protest as I hope to have any part in God's favour is true It is well known how I did many years since dedicate my travels and studies to the use and as I may tearm it service of my Lord of Essex which I protest before God I did not making election of him as the likeliest mean of mine own advancement but out of the humor of a man that ever from the time I had any use of reason whether it were reading upon good books or upon the example of a good Eather or by nature I loved my Country more than was answerable to my fortune and I held at that time my Lord to be the fitter instrument to do good to the State and therefore I applied my self to him in a manner which I think hapneth rarely among men for I did not only labour carefully and industriously in that he set me about whether it were matter of advice or otherwise but neglecting the Queens service mine own fortune and in a sort my vocation I did nothing but advise and ruminate with my self to the best of my understanding propositions and memorials of any thing that might concern his Lordships honour fortune or service And when not long after I entred into this course my Brother Mr. Anthony Bacon came from beyond the Seas being a Gentleman whose ability the world taketh knowledge of for matters of State specially forraign I did likewise knit his service to be at my Lords disposing And on the other side I must and will ever acknowledge my Lords love trust and favour towards me last of all his liberality having infeofed me of land which I sold for eighteen hundred pounds to Master Reynold Nicholas and I think was more worth and that at such a time and with so kind and noble circumstances as the manner was as much as the matter which though it be but an idle digression yet because I am not willing to be short in commemoration of his benefits I will presume
to trouble your Lordship with the relating to you the manner of it After the Queen had denied me the Solicitors place for the which his Lordship had been a long and earnest sutor on my behalf it pleased him to come to me from Richmond to Twicknam Park and brake with me and said Mr. Bacon the Queen hath denied me the place for you and hath placed another I know you are the least part of your own matter but you fare ill because you have chosen me for your mean and dependance you have spent your time and thoughts in my matters I dye these were his very words if I do not somewhat towards your fortune you shall not deny to accept a piece of Land which I will bestow upon you My answer I remember was that for my fortune it was no great matter but that his Lordships offer made me call to mind what was wont to be said when I was in France of the Duke of Guise that he was the greatest Usurer in France because he had turned all his Estate into obligations meaning that he had left himself nothing but only had bound numbers of persons to him Now my Lord said I I would not have you imitate his course nor turn your state thus by great gifts into obligations for you will find many bad debtors He bad me take no care for that and pressed it whereupon I said my Lord I see I must be your homager and hold Land of your gift but do you know the manner of doing homage in law Always it is with a saying of his faith to the King and his other Lords and therefore my Lord said I I can be no more yours than I was and it may be with the ancient savings and if I grow to be a rich man you will give me leave to give it back to some of your unrewarded followers But to return sure I am though I can arrogate nothing to my self but that I was a faithful remembrance to his Lordship that while I had most credit with him his fortune went on best And yet in two main points we always directly and contradictorily differed which I will mention to your Lordship because it giveth light to all that followed The one was I ever set this down that the only course to be held with the Queen was by obsequiousness and observance and I remember would usually engage confidently that if he would take that course conâ—â—â—tly and with choise of good particulars to express it the Queen would 〈◊〉 brought in time to Assuerus question to ask What should be done to the Man that the King would honour meaning that her goodness was without limit where there was a true concurrence which I knew in her nature to be true My Lord on the otherside had a settled opinion that the Queen could be brought to nothing but by a kind of necessity and authority and I well remember when by violent courses at any time he had get his will he would ask me Now Sir whose principles be true And I would again say to him My Lord these courses be like to hot waters they will help at a pang but if you use them you shall spoil the stomack and you shall be fain still to make them stronger and stronger and yet in the end they will less their operation with much other variety wherewith I used to touch that string Another point was that I always vehemently disswaded him from seeking greatness by a military dependance or by a popular dependance as that which would breed in the Queen jealousie in himself presumption and in the State perturbation and I did usually compare them to Icarus two wings which were joyned on with wax and would make him venture to soar too high and then fall him at the height And I would further say unto him My Lord stand upon two feet and fly nor upon two wings The two feet are the two kinds of Justice Commutative and Distributive use your greatness for advancing of merit and vertue and relieving wrongs and burdens you shall need no other art or fineness but he would tell me that opinion came not from my mind but from my robe But it is very true that I that never meant to inthral my self to my Lord of Essex nor any other man more than stood with the publick good did though I could little prevail divert him by all means possible from courses of the wars and popularity for I saw plainly the Queen must either live or dye if she lived then the times would be as in the declination of an old Prince if she died the times would be as in the beginning of a new and that if his Lordship did rise too fast in these courses the times might be dangerous for him and he for them Nay I remember I was thus plain with him upon his voyage to the Islands when I saw every Spring put forth such actions of charge and provocation that I said to him my Lord when I came first unto you I took you for a Physitian that desired to cure the diseases of the State but now I doubt you will be like those Physitians which can be content to keep their Patients low because they would always be in request which plainness he nevertheless took very well as he had an excellent ear and was patientissimus veri and assured me the case of the Realm required it and I think this speech of mine and the like renewed afterwards pricked him to write that Apology which is in many mens hands But this difference in two points so main and material bred in process of time a discontinuance of privateness as it is the manner of men seldome to communicate where they think their courses not approved between his Lordship and my self so as I was not called nor advised with for some year and a half before his Lordships going into Ireland as in former time yet nevertheless touching his going into Ireland it pleased him expresly and in a set manner to desire mine opinion and counsel At which time I did not only disswade but protest against his going telling him with as much vehemency and asseveration as I could that absence in that kind would exulcerate the Queens mind whereby it would not be possible for him to carry himself so as to give her sufficient contentment nor for her to carry her self so as to give him sufficient countenance which would be ill for her ill for him and ill for the State And because I would omit no-argument I remember I stood also upon the difficulty of the action setting before him out of Histories that the Irish was such an enemy as the ancient Gauls or Britons or Germans were that we saw how the Romans who had such discipline to govern their soldiers such donatives to encourage them and the whole world in a manner to levy them yet when they came to deal with enemies which placed their felicity only in liberty
good offices but to publish and declare my self for him and never was so ambitious of any thing in my life time as I was to have carried some token or favour from her Majesty to my Lord using all the art I had both to procure her Majesty to send and my self to be the messenger for as to the former I feared not to alledge to her that this proceeding toward my Lord was a thing towards the people very implausible and therefore wished her Majesty however she did yet to discharge her self of it and lay it upon others and therefore that she should intermix her proceeding with some immediate graces from her self that the world might take knowledge of her Princely nature and goodness lest it should alienate the hearts of her people from her which I did stand upon knowing well that if she once relented to send or visit those demonstrations would prove matter of substance for my Lords good And to draw that employment upon my self I advised her Majesty that whensoever God should move her to turn the light of her favours towards my Lord to make signification to him thereof that her Majesty if she did it not in person would at the least use some such mean as might not intitle themselves to any part of the thanks as persons that were thought mighty with her to work her or to bring her about but to use some such as could not be thought but a meer conduct of her own goodness but I could never prevail with her though I am perswaded she saw plainly whereat I levelled but she plainly had me in jealousie that I was not hers intirely but still had inward and deep respects towards my Lord more than stood at that time with her will and pleasure About the same time I remember an answer of mine in a matter which had some affinity with my Lords cause which though it grew from me went after about in others names For her Majesty being mightily incensed with that Book which was dedicated to my Lord of Essex being a story of the first year of King Henry the fourth thinking it a seditious prelude to put into the peoples head boldness and faction said She had an opinion that there was treason in it and asked me if I could not find any places in it that might be drawn within case of treason whereto I answered for treason surely I found none but for fellony very many And when her Majesty hastily asked me wherein I told her the Author had committed very apparent theft for he had taken most of the sentences of Cornelius Tacitus and translated them into English and put them into his Text. And another time when the Queen would not be perswaded that it was his writing whose name was to it but that it had some more mischievous Author and said with great indignation that she would have him racked to produce his Author I replyed Nay Madam he is a Doctor never rack his person but rack his stile let him have pen ink and paper and help of books and be enjoyned to continue the Story where it breaketh off and I will undertake by collecting the stiles to judge whether he were the Author or no. But for the main matter sure I am when the Queen at any time asked mine opinion of my Lords case I ever in one tenor said unto her that they were faults which the Law might term Contempts because they were the trangression of her particular directions and instructions but then what defence might be made of them in regard of the great interest the person had in her Majesties favour in regard of the greatness of his place and the ampleness of his Commission in regard of the nature of the business being action of war which in common cases cannot be tyed to strictness of instructions in regard of the distance of the place having also a sea between that demands and commands must be subject to wind and weather in regard of a councel of State in Ireland which he had at his back to avow his actions upon and lastly in regard of a good intention that he would alledge for himself which I told her in some religions was held to be a sufficient dispensation for Gods commandements much more for Princes In all these regards I besought her Majesty to be advised again and again how she brought the cause into any publick question nay I went further for I told her my Lord was and eloquent and well spoken man and besides his eloquence of nature or art he had an eloquence of accident which passed them both which was the pity and benevolence of his hearers and therefore that when he should come to his answer for himself I doubted his words would have so unequal passage above theirs that should charge him as would not be for her Majesties honour and therefore wished the conclusion might be that they might wrap it up privately between themselves and that she would restore my Lord to his former attendance with some addition of honour to take away discontent But this I will never deny that I did shew no approbation generally of his being sent back again into Ireland both because it would have carried a repugnancy with my former discourse and because I was in mine own heart fully perswaded that it was not good neither for the Queen nor for the State nor for himself and yet I did not dissawde it neither but left it ever as locus lubricus For this particularity I do well remember that after your Lordship was named for the place in Ireland and not long before your going it pleased her Majesty at White-hall to speak to me of that nomination at which time I said to her Surely Madam if you mean not to imploy my Lord of Essex thither again your Majesty cannot make a better choise and was going on to show some reason and her Majesty interrupted me with great passion Essex said she whensoever I send Essex back again into Ireland I will Marry you claim it of me whereunto I said Well Madam I will release that contract if his going be for the good of your State Immediately after the Queen had thought of a course which was also executed to have somewhat published in the Star-chamber for the satisfaction of the world touching my Lord of Essex his restraint and my Lord of Essex not to be called to it but occasion to be taken by reason of some Libels then dispersed which when her Majesty propounded unto me I was utterly against it and told her plainly that the people would say that my Lord was wounded upon his back and that justice had her balance taken from her which ever consisted of an accusation and defence with many other quick and significant tearms to that purpose insomuch that I remember I said that my Lord in foro famae was too hard for her and therefore wished her as I had done before to wrap it up privately And