Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/50

Rh, and to hold me in disgrace with Her Majesty, whom he seems now to clear of such mind towards me; and, therefore, I leave the truth of what I say, and he opposeth, unto your Lordship's indifferent considerations."

Bacon did not produce the two letters, or offer to produce them, although they must have been in his possession, for in his Apology he prints them both, claiming that he manufactured the fictitious correspondence between his brother and Essex solely to bring about a reconciliation between the Earl and the Queen.

The Earls of Essex and Southampton were convicted and condemned to death, but Essex only was executed. After the execution Bacon was employed as before to write an account of Essex's offences, and did so in a paper called, A Declaration of the Practises and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert late Earle of Essex and his Complices, against her Maiestie and her Kingdom, etc. (1601). For his services, Bacon received £1200, from the fine of Catesby, one of the accomplices of Essex. "The Queen hath done something for me," he wrote to a creditor, "though not in the proportion I had hoped."

Bacon's conduct towards Essex has been a fruitful subject of controversy. Some of his biographers find no fault with it, while others see writ large in the circumstance an insensibility to nice moral distinctions that led later to his downfall. The Earl of Essex had committed treason, and according to the standard of justice in that age he deserved Rh