tachment to the constitution of his country, began to be impatient of the exclusion from public life to which his late conduct had doomed him; and appears to have been on the watch for some opportunity of reconciling himself with the court, and again confronting Bacon, his now triumphant rival. This opportunity the lord-keeper himself unwarily afforded him. It seems that, on some occasion during the absence of the king, the airs of superiority which Bacon thought proper to assume had given high offence to sir Ralph Winwood, the secretary of state; who, not content with venting his spleen by some peevish expressions against the lord-keeper in a dispatch to his majesty, sought out Coke, his old friend, and earnestly entreated to be made the means of restoring him to the favor of Buckingham,-the only passport to the good-will of his master. This precious favor Coke had forfeited, some time before, by the coldness with which he had listened to proposals for a marriage between one of his daughters and sir John Villiers, the brother of the earl; and Winwood now proposed that this negotiation should be renewed under his auspices, with the offer, on the part of Coke, of a large marriage portion. Coke consented to this expedient; Buckingham, who had no object so much at heart as the advancement of all the members of his numerous and necessitous family, was propitiated by the overture; and all appeared to be going on prosperously, when sir Edward Coke found himself confronted by obstacles on which he had not calculated. His wife,-the

wealthy

wealthy widow of lord Hatton and grand-daughter of lord Burleigh,-was a woman much more remarkable for a high spirit than for any of the female virtues; and provoked beyond endurance at this attempt on the part of her husband to dispose of their daughter without her concurrence, and contrary, it is said, to the wishes of the young lady herself, she carried her off and lodged her clandestinely at the house of sir Edmund Withipole near Oatlands. Coke thought it necessary to write to Buckingham to procure a warrant from the privy-council for his lady and some of her abettors, in order to the recovery of his daughter, of so little force was his authority in his own household! Before the arrival of the warrant, however, he learned where his daughter was concealed, and, taking his sons with him, he went to sir Edmund Withipole's house and brought her away by force. Upon this, his contumacious lady made a complaint against him to the privycouncil.

Bacon, who dreaded nothing so much as the return of his old antagonist to power, was not ashamed to interfere in this family quarrel, and to countenance Yelverton, the attorney-general, in filing an information in the star-chamber against Coke, for the means which he had taken to recover his daughter, strictly legal as they unquestionably were. He also wrote two letters, to the king and to his patron Buckingham, respecting this marriage,— pieces which throw too much light both on his own VOL. II. character

F

character and on the view which he took of that of Coke, to be here omitted.

Sir Francis Bacon to the earl of Buckingham.

"I shall write to your lordship of a business which your lordship may think to concern myself; but I do think it concerneth your lordship much more. For as for me, as my judgement is not so weak to think it can do me any hurt, so my love to you is so strong as I would prefer the good of you and yours before mine own particular.

"It seemeth secretary Winwood hath officiously busied himself to make a match between your brother and sir Edward Coke's daughter; and, as we hear, he doth it rather to make a faction than out of any great affection to your lordship. It is true he hath the consent of sir Edward Coke, as we hear, upon reasonable conditions for your brother, and yet no better then without question may be found in some other matches. But the mother's consent is not had, nor the young gentlewoman's, who expecteth a great fortune from her mother, which, without her consent, is endangered. This match, out of my faith and freedom towards your lordship, I hold very inconvenient both for your brother and yourself.

"First, he shall marry into a disgraced house, which in reason of state is never held good.

66

Next, he shall marry into a troubled house of man and wife, which in religion and Christian discretion is disliked.

Thirdly, your lordship will go near to loose all such your friends as are adverse to sir Edward Coke (myself only except, who out of a pure love and thankfulness shall ever be firm to you).

"And lastly, and chiefly, believe it, it will greatly weaken and distract the king's service: for though, in regard of the king's great wisdom and depth, I am persuaded those things will not follow which they imagine, yet opinion will do a great deal of harm, and cast the king back, and make him relapse into those inconveniences which are now well on to be recovered.

"Therefore my advice is, and your lordship shall do yourself a great deal of honor if, according to religion and the law of God, your lordship will signify unto my lady your mother, that your desire is, that the marriage be not pressed or proceeded in without the consent of both parents, and so either break it altogether, or defer any further (delaya) in it till your lordship's return. And this the rather, for that besides the inconvenience of the matter itself, it hath been carried so harshly and inconsiderately by secretary Winwood, as, for doubt that the father should take away the maiden by force, the mother, to get the start, hath conveyed her away secretly; which is ill of all sides. Thus, hoping your lordship will not only accept well but believe my faithful advice, who by my great experience in the world must needs see further than your lordship can, I ever rest," &c.

a Thus in Stephens's collection.

F 2

To

To the king he ventured to express his jealousy of the influence of Coke. still more undisguisedly, as follows:

Sir Francis Bacon to the king.

"I think it agreeable to my duty and the great obligation wherein I am tied to your majesty, to be freer than other men in giving your majesty faithful counsel, while things are in passing, and more bound than other men in doing your commandments when your resolution is settled and made known to me. I shall therefore most humbly crave pardon from your majesty, if in plainness and no less humbleness I deliver to your majesty my disinterested opinion in the business of the match of sir John Villiers, which I take to be magnum in parva: preserving always the laws and duties of a firm friendship to my lord of Buckingham, whom I will never cease to love, and to whom I have written already, but have not heard yet from his lordship.

"But first I have three suits to make to your majesty, hoping well that you will grant them all.

"The first is, that if there be any merit in drawing on that match, your majesty would bestow the thanks, not upon any zeal of sir Edward Coke to please your majesty; nor upon the eloquent persuasions or pragmaticals of Mr. secretary Winwood; but upon them that carrying your commands and directions with strength and justice, in the matter of the governor of Dieppe, and in the matter of sir Robert Rich, and in the matter of protecting the

lady