ment; while, on the other, the numerous powerful friends that Essex still retained used all their influence to mitigate her anger; and in the state to which he was reduced, apparently to the brink of the grave, she was so far visited with compunctious feelings, as to order her physician to send him broth and cordials, and to signify her desire to visit him, if she might do so with honour. He had now also more liberty granted in his own house; often walking upon the open leads and in the garden with his lady, they reading to each other; but the latter could not yet obtain permission to live with him; and his gates were still kept very close, and no person admitted to him, though the Secretary continued all friendly offices towards him.*

This return to kindness no doubt produced a return to reviving health; and his friends succeeded in prevailing on the Queen to allow him to go into the country; but not to consider himself freed from her indignation, nor presume to approach the court or her person. He returns to town, and taking the advantage of the anniversary of Her Majesty's accession to the throne, the 17th November, he addresses a letter to her, in which he says:-" Only miserable Essex, full of pain, full of sickness, full of sorrow, languishing in repentance for his offences past; hateful to himself that he is yet alive, and importunate on death, if your favour be irrevocable; * Sidney Papers. Birch's Memoirs.

he joys only for your Majesty's great happiness, and happy greatness; and were the rest of his days never so many, and sure to be as happy as they are like to be miserable, he would lose them all to have this happy 17th day many and many times renewed with glory to your Majesty, and comfort of all your faithful subjects."

But the refusal of access to the Queen and court, and the hasty and ungracious measure of taking away from him the privilege, he possessed, of the farm of sweet wines, created a deep impression of resentment on the mind of Essex; and induced him, unfortunately, to give ear to the desperate counsels of his ill-advised friends, his dependents and servants, which went even to the act of forcing his way to the Queen by violence, if necessary. Vast numbers of various descriptions of persons were allowed free admission to Essex House, where puritan divines made inflammatory discourses, and uttered abusive expressions against the Queen herself, in which Essex unfortunately so far joined, as to give vent to an offensive expression, "She is grown an old woman, and as crooked in mind as in her carcase,”—which was carefully reported to her. These friends proceeded at length to form a council, which held its meetings at Drury House.

A list was here made out of the Earl's party, consisting, as he told the assembled meeting, of one hundred and twenty earls, barons, knights, and

gentlemen. The plan proposed was this-that a body of men should seize the gate, the court, the guard, and presence-chamber, and that the Earl himself, with certain chosen persons, should go to the Queen, and dictate to her certain propositions; but the plan was considered too bold and perilous, and did not take effect. A great concourse of people speedily afterwards began to assemble at Essex House, where it was decided to act at once, but somewhat differently. The result was, that Essex, with about three hundred followers, sallied out, having previously locked, within the house, the Lord Keeper, the Comptroller, and the Lord Chief Justice, whom the Queen had sent to Essex House to inquire what was the meaning of such a concourse of people.

The party of Essex proceeded to the city, calling out on entering it, "For the Queen! for the Queen! a plot is laid for my life!" From thence they marched to the Sheriff's house. No time, however, had been lost, on the part of government, in proclaiming the Earl and his adherents traitors through various parts of the city; and Essex was told that the Lord Admiral was advancing upon him with a body of troops. Seeing now that all hopes were at an end, he resolved to return, and sue for grace and favour from the Queen, by means of the Lord Keeper and the others, whom he had confined in Essex House. They had, however, been released before Essex reached home, and after some

discussion with the Lord Admiral, and others who accompanied him, the Earl surrendered himself; when he and his friends, the Earl of Southampton, the Lords Sandys, Cromwell, and Monteagle, Sir Charles Danvers and Sir Henry Bromley, were conveyed to the Tower, and the rest of the conspirators to the public prisons.

Indictments being found against Essex and Southampton on the 19th of February, 1601, they were publicly arraigned in Westminster Hall, before twenty-five peers of the realm, the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst sitting as Lord High Steward. The two Lord Chief Justices and five other Judges attended, the Queen's Serjeant, the Attorney and SolicitorGeneral, and, to the surprise of all, Mr. Francis Bacon, on the part of the prosecution. It has been seen how strenuously the Earl exerted himself to procure Bacon's elevation-how he soothed his disappointment out of his own means-and how Bacon, in return, endeavoured to mediate between the Queen and him; but his present conduct towards the unfortunate Essex, on trial for his life, was considered as untenable, unjustifiable, and shameful. As one of the counsel for the prosecution, he exerted all his talents of rhetoric and his display of legal knowledge to secure his conviction. No attempt was made by him, after the Earl's conviction, to plead his benefactor's cause before the Queen, which, it was generally thought, would have been successful. But the faithless friend

who had assisted in taking the Earl's life, was now employed to murder the Earl's fame." This faithless friend was the person selected to write 'A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert Earl of Essex,' which was printed by authority; a performance abounding in expressions "which no generous enemy would have employed respecting a man who had so dearly expiated his offences." It is true Bacon found it necessary, in justification of his own character, to publish an apology amounting to little more than "what I did was done in my duty to the Queen and to the State, in which I would not show myself falsehearted, nor faint-hearted, for any man's sake living." No: this voluntary advocate showed himself much more hard than faint-hearted, when he lent his powerful aid to immolate, on the public scaffold, a friend and a benefactor.

The trial ended in a way that such an overt act of treason could only end, in conviction and sentence of death, which was carried into execution on the 25th of February. During his confinement he showed a true repentance for his offences, and fully admitted the justice of his sentence. His speech on the scaffold melted the nobles and the other spectators to tears. In his last prayer to God he says "Give me patience to bear, as becometh me, this just punishment upon me by so honourable a tryal. Grant me the inward comfort of thy spirit,"