Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/181

 something was known, told his story to Winwood, and on 10 Sept. repeated it in a letter to the king, who directed Coke to examine the affair. Lady Somerset's name was soon implicated in the charge of poisoning, and that of her husband was subsequently involved in it. On 13 Oct. a commission was issued to the chancellor and other persons of high rank to inquire.

As soon as Somerset knew himself to be suspected, he left James at Royston and came up to London to justify himself. He wrote to James finding fault with the composition of the court of inquiry, and threatening him with the loss of the support of the Howard family if he persisted in the course which he was taking. James answered that the investigation must continue, and on 17 Oct. the commissioners wrote to the earl and countess directing them to remain in their respective apartments. On that evening Somerset burnt a number of his own letters to Northampton, written at the time of the murder, and directed Cotton to affix false dates to the letters which he had received at the same time from Northampton and Overbury. Though these orders were subsequently withdrawn, the fact that they had been given was very damaging to Somerset; but his conduct is not absolutely inconsistent with the supposition that, being a man of little judgment, he was frightened at the prospect of seeing letters relating to tricks purposed to be put on Overbury interpreted in the light of subsequent discoveries. On the next day Somerset was committed to the Dean of Westminster's house.

The inferior instruments, the warders, were tried and executed, and in the ordinary course of things the trial of Somerset and his wife would have followed soon. It was, however, postponed, apparently in order that investigation might be made into Somerset's relations with the Spanish ambassador, and also perhaps because Lady Somerset gave birth at this time to a daughter, who afterwards became the mother of Lord Russell.

The prisoners were to be tried in the high steward's court. A few days before the time appointed, Somerset, who had been urged by the king to declare himself guilty, threatened to bring some charge against James himself. James met the attack by refusing to hear further from the prisoner in private till after the trial, and Somerset then declared that he would not come to the trial at all, on the plea, it would seem, of illness.

On 24 May the countess pleaded guilty, and received sentence of death. On the 25th Somerset, though he at first pretended to be unable to leave the Tower, to which he had been removed some weeks previously, was brought to Westminster Hall. That Somerset was accessory to Overbury's murder before the fact, and consequently guilty of murder, was strongly urged by Bacon, who, as attorney-general, conducted the prosecution, and Bacon was backed by Montague and Crew. Bacon had no difficulty in showing that Somerset had taken part in a highly suspicious plot, and he argued that there was no motive leading Somerset to imprison Overbury unless he had meant to murder him, as, if Overbury had been allowed to ‘go beyond sea’ as an ambassador, he would have been disabled by distance from throwing hindrances in the way of the marriage. The argument throws light on Bacon's habit of omitting to notice difficulties in the way of a theory which he has once accepted, but it is certainly not conclusive against Somerset. If Overbury had wished to give evidence of the conduct of Lady Essex, which might have influenced the commissioners who sat to decide on the nullity of her marriage, he might easily have done so by letter from the most distant embassy, while it would have been impossible for him to communicate his knowledge from the Tower, where both Helwys, the lieutenant, and Weston, his own immediate keeper, were Somerset's creatures.

Montague had charge of the most serious part of the case. He proved that Somerset had sent powders to Overbury, and he tried to show, though not very successfully, that Somerset had poisoned the tarts which had been sent.

In a case of circumstantial evidence the business of the counsel of the defence is not only to show that the facts proved do not fit the theory of the prosecution, but to show that they do fit another theory which is compatible with the innocence of the accused. The main weakness of the argument of the counsel for the crown was that they proved too much. Somerset, according to their showing, was constantly trying to poison Overbury, and yet all his efforts signally failed. Powder after powder, poisoned tart after poisoned tart, were sent, and yet Overbury would not die. At last an injection was administered by an apothecary's boy, and Overbury succumbed at once. Yet no tittle of evidence was advanced to connect this last act with Somerset.

On the other hand, the proceedings become explicable if we suppose that Somerset, with Northampton as his adviser, merely wanted to silence Overbury while the nullity suit was proceeding, and to impress him with the belief that he and Northampton were advocating his cause with the king, in order