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Bacon  Bacon's information to Elizabeth. To Essex Anthony remained faithful till death, and worked industriously for seven years as his private 'under-secretary of state for foreign aftairs.' So long as this relationship lasted, Essex's confidence in Anthony increased year by year, and they corresponded with each other on terms of closer and closer intimacy. And Anthony never ceased to urge his brother to remain firm in his adherence to their common patron. But Burghley still continued to hold out shadowy hopes of preferment to both the brothers, and wrote to their mother (29 Aug. 1593) that they were 'so qualified in learning and virtue, as if they had a supply of more health they wanted nothing.'

Anthony at once entered into elaborate correspondence with agents in Scotland, where Essex was anxious to advance James VI's claims to the English throne. He was soon fully trusted by King James, and received in 1594 the king's thanks for the zeal he was displaying in his behalf. "With the French king, Henry IV, Bacon similarly endeavoured to keep on the friendliest terms. On 14 April 1590 Henry sent Bacon an autograph letter, in which he expressed his high esteem of his 'prudence in the conduct of public affairs,' and in May of the same year Anthony was visited by the Duke de Bouillon, Henry IV's envoy to England. His regular correspondents from 1596 onwards included Sir Thomas Bodley, the English ambassador at the Hague; Sir Anthony Sherley, the far-famed traveller; John Napier, the Scotch inventor of logarithms, who sent him mathematical papers: Dr. Hawkins, the ambassador at Venice; and Sir Thomas Challoner, an accomplished scholar, whom Anthony had introduced into Essex's service.

Bacon lived until 1594 chiefly with his brother Francis, either at Gray's Inn or at Twickenham Park, by the Thames. At intervals he visited his mother at Gorhambury, or went to reside at Kingston and Redbourne in Hertfordshire, where he had inherited property from his father. In 1594 he hired a house in Bishopsgate, London, but its contiguity to the Bull Inn — a play- house — was so bitterly disapproved of by his mother, that in the following year he removed to Chelsea. In October 1595 Essex invited him to take up his residence in Essex House by the Strand, and, in spite of Lady Bacon's protest that such a step would expose him to the taunt that he was no longer Essex's 'worthy friend,' but 'his follower' — 'a rare kind of good wit and speech' — the invitation was gratefully accepted. The gout and stone still oppressed him, and money troubles did not cease. Before the close of

1593 he sold his estate of Baily, and he was constantly borrowing of his friends in the following years, but these loans were often contracted to supply Francis's needs rather than his own. Early in 1595 he made a fruitless application to his uncle. Sir Henry Killigrew, for a loan of 200/. In 1597 Essex in vain appealed to Nicholas Bacon, Anthony's half-brother, to assist him. The only one of his half-brothers who showed Anthony any kindness was Edward Bacon, and Anthony endeavoured in 1597 to obtain a small post at court for him from Sir Robert Cecil, who 'had of late professed very seriously an absolute amnesty of all misconceits passed.' In 1600 Bacon seems to have contemplated the alienation of Gorhambury, which his brother Francis, then no longer poor, was anxious to secure for himself.

In Francis's advancement at court and in health Anthony meanwhile showed an assiduous anxiety. Constantly in his correspondence with Essex in 1596 he implores his patron to secure for Francis the mastership of the rolls. Francis, who had the highest opinion of Anthony's political abilities, partially reciprocated these kindnesses, but the fraternal sentiment was certainly better developed in Anthony than in his brother. At one time Francis was endeavouring, through his friend Sir John Fortescue, to bring Anthony's diplomatic services to the notice of the queen, but the scheme met with no success. Francis also dedicated the first edition of his essays (published in 1597) to Anthony, and he wrote there: 'I sometimes wish your infirmities translated upon myself, that her majesty might have the service of so active and able a mind and I might be with excuse confined to those contemplations and studies for which I am fittest.' Anthony, in his cherished hope that Francis would still adhere to Essex, was anxious that the dedication should be transferred to the earl, and at once forwarded a copy to him begging for leave to transfer any interest unto your lordship, then humbly to crave your honourable acceptance and trustworthy protection [for the book].'

In the early months of 1596 the court- factions of Essex and the Cecils (Sir Robert Cecil was then secretary of state) were in hot dispute as to the advantages to be derived from the Cadiz expedition, upon which Essex was resolved, and Anthony did his best to support his friend's policy. In the autumn of the same year his aunt, Lady Russell, made a strong endeavour to detach him from Essex. The attempt was doubtless prompted by Lady Bacon, who preferred the serious demeanour of her brother-in-law Burghley to