Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/52

xliv, Bacon must have become fully aware of the facts which would condemn Essex in the eyes of all good men, and render him amenable to the heaviest penalty of the law. Awakened, as from a dream, with the startling truth that Essex was guilty as well as imprudent, he saw that all which he and others had deemed rashness was the result of a long concocted treason. In whatever light it could be viewed, the course which Essex had pursued was ruinous to Bacon. He had been bondsman again and again to the queen for the love and duty of Essex; and now he had the mortification of discovering that, instead of being open and entire with him, Essex had abused his friendship, and had assumed the dissembling attitude of humility and penitence, that he might more securely aim a blow at the very life of his royal benefactress. This double treachery entirely alienated the affections of Bacon. He saw no longer the high-souled, chivalric Essex, open as the day, lucid as truth, giving both faults and virtues to the light, redeeming in the eyes of all men the bounty of the crown; he saw only an ungrateful man, whom the fiend ambition had possessed, and knew that the name of that fiend was "Legion."

On the 19th of February, 1601, Essex and Southampton were arraigned, and, upon the trial, one of the conspirators, allured by the hope of life, made a full disclosure of all their treasons.

Unable to deny facts clearly proved against him, Essex could insist only upon his motives, which he urged with the utmost confidence, He repeated his former assertion, that there was a plot against his life, and that Cecil, Cobham, and Raleigh had driven him to desperate measures. Bacon, who appeared as one of the counsel for the crown, resisted these imputations, and said, "It is evident, my lord of Essex, that you had planted in your heart a pretence against the government of your country; and, as Pisistratus, calculating upon the affections of the people, showed himself wounded in the streets of Athens, so you entered the city with the vain hope that the citizens would join in your rebellion. Indeed, my lord, all that you have said, or can say in these matters are but shadows, and therefore methinks it were your best course to confess, and not to justify." Essex here interrupted him, and said, "The speech of Mr. Bacon calls upon me to defend myself; and be it known, my lords, I call upon him to be a witness for me, for he being a daily courtier, and having free access to her majesty, undertook to go to the queen in my behalf, and did write a letter most artificially, which was subscribed with my name, also another letter was drawn by him to occasion that letter, with others that should come from his brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon, both which he showed the queen, and in my letter he did plead for me feelingly against those enemies, and pointed them out as particularly as was possible; which letters I know Mr. Secretary Cecil hath seen, and by them it will appear what conceit Mr. Bacon held of me, so different from what he here coloureth and pleadeth against me." To this charge, urged in violation of the most sacred confidence, which Essex well knew would render Bacon obnoxious to the queen, and suspected by all parties, he instantly and indignantly replied, "My lord, I spent more hours to make you a good subject, than upon any man in the world besides; but since you have stirred up this point, I dare warrant you this letter will not blush to see the light, for I did but perform the part of an honest man, and ever laboured to have done you good if it might have been, and to no other end; for what I intended for your good was wished from the heart, without touch of any man's honour." After this unjustifiable disclosure, which severed the last link between them, Bacon only spoke once, and with a bitterness that showed how deeply he was wounded.

Through the whole trial Essex conducted himself with courage and firmness worthy of a better cause. Though assailed by the lawyers with much rancour, and harassed by the deepest search into his offences; though harshly questioned by his adversaries, and betrayed by his confederates, he stood at bay, like some noble animal, who fears not his pursuers, nor the death that awaits him; and when, at last, the deliberate voices of his fellows peers proclaimed him guilty, he heard the sentence with manly composure, and, without one thought of himself, sought only to save the life of his friend.

Bacon having obtained a remission of the sentence in favour of six persons who were implicated, made one more effort to serve this unhappy nobleman. He says, "For the time which passed, I mean between the arraignment and my lord's suffering, 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 majesty's mercy, terming it to her as an excellent balm that did continually distil from her sovereign 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 person 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." All exertions, however, proved fruitless; for, after much fluctuation on the queen's part, arising from causes variously stated by historians, Essex, on the 25th of February, 1601, was executed in the Tower.