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 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 823 
 BG\a 
 
 V.I
 
 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; 
 
 l&ise ana d^all 
 
 THE EARL OF SOMERSET. 
 
 ^ Iflomante, 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 « Let me speak, to the unknowing woild. 
 How these things came about — so shall you hear 
 Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts; 
 Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters ; 
 Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause ; 
 And, in this upshot, purposes mistook 
 Fall'n on the inventors' heads ;— all this can I 
 Truly deliver." Hamlet. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER, 
 
 13^ AVE-MARIA-LANE.
 
 rifiifA mrvn^^LU 
 
 ■'M,5 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SHACKELL AND ARROWSMITH, JOHKSON^S-COURT.
 
 • • X3 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It has become fashionable in these 
 enlightened times, to treat historical 
 subjects agreeably to the opinion of 
 nine-tenths of the world, and exhibit 
 its characters and their actions in the 
 fascinating dress of Romance, rather 
 than in the sober language of unvar- 
 nished narrative. Indeed, some people 
 have gone so far as to pronounce his- 
 a 3
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 tory to be but a graver species of fiction^ 
 because it has happened that two dif- 
 ferent writers, when treating of one 
 and the same matter, have represented 
 it in the most opposite h'ghts. Even 
 the events, with which we are con- 
 temporary, are blazoned forth by the 
 champions of self-interest, and the hire- 
 lings of faction, in statements as con- 
 tradictory as are truth and falsehood. 
 Now, if things which pass under our 
 own observation, and about which our 
 senses cannot deceive us, be so glar- 
 ingly misrepresented ; the worthies who 
 question the veracity of genuine his- 
 tory, and treat it altogether as Ro-
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 mance will find that these volumes are 
 constructed so as to meet their doubts^ 
 and dissipate the objections they en- 
 tertain against matters-of-fact that were 
 contemporary with their forefathers, 
 about six generations back. 
 
 Since, then, nine-tenths of the world 
 love rather to be entertained with this 
 new method of reading history, we 
 have even yielded to their opinion, 
 and set forth various matters that hap- 
 pened two hundred years ago, in the 
 colours of the modern historical melo- 
 drama. But it is necessary to advertise 
 the reader, that we have given some
 
 Vm PREFACE. 
 
 latitude to Fancy, not with any view 
 of distorting the truths we would com- 
 municate, but to connect the details 
 of our narrative, much in the same 
 way as the carpenters, who erected 
 the Pavilion on Woolwich Common, 
 gilded the ropes which support its can- 
 vas roof, rather for decoration, than 
 "for strength. We have not, however, 
 allowed ourselves to be drawn by the 
 dominion of Fancy, beyond the line 
 of demarcation which Fiction has pre- 
 scribed for her ablest artists. 
 
 Of all these matters, however, the 
 fourteen millions of the British Em-
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 pire who shall peruse "Blighted Am^ 
 bition'* will judge for themselves ; and 
 as we are writing neither the puff di- 
 rect, nor oblique, we may be allowed 
 now to put an end to our advertise- 
 ment, and permit the reader to seize 
 the passing hour, which, like the wave, 
 never returns again. 
 
 With respect to the characters who 
 make a figure in this *^ Romance^'' ex- 
 cept one female, they are all historical^ 
 even " to the very serving-men and 
 women, and shone with various de- 
 grees of splendour, as good substan- 
 tial courtiers in the reign of the First
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 James of England. The follies of the 
 fools of that period were never yet 
 painted in truer colours, than their 
 prototypes wore; and the crimes and 
 vices of the knaves and villains who 
 surrounded the Prince have never 
 been represented in stronger language 
 than by their illustrious contemporaries. 
 Coke, Bacon, Shakespeare, Ben Jon- 
 son, and the neglected but veracious 
 Rushworth. 
 
 Shrove-Tuesdai/^ 
 1822.
 
 BLIGHTED AMBITION, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 O polish'd perturbation ! golden care ! 
 That keeps the ports of slumber open wide 
 To many a watchful night ; sleep with it now I 
 Yet not so sound, nor half so deeply sweet, 
 As he, whose brow with homely biggen bound. 
 Snores out the watch of night. O Majesty ! 
 When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit 
 Like a rich armour, worn in heat of day, 
 That scaidd with safety. 
 
 SECOND FART OF HENRY IV. 
 
 Tradition records that an Ambassador 
 of Henry the Seventh consulted a pro- 
 phetic monk of Italy, to know how long 
 the crown, acquired by his master in the 
 battle of Bosworth Field, should continue 
 in the family. The seer replied by re- 
 peating these enigmatical words, Mars^ 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR^ 
 
 PueVy AlectOy Virgo, Vnlpes, Leo, Nid- 
 lus. 
 
 This response being altogether unin- 
 telligible to the Ambassador, he solicited 
 the necromancer to furnish him with an 
 elucidation more explicit than the signi- 
 fication which those words bore in the 
 English tongue. The monk, without 
 hesitation, offered to make his enigma- 
 tical jargon perfectly intelligible. A se- 
 lected time w^as appointed for the Eng- 
 lishman to attend the seer, who doubted 
 not that he would fully satisfy the in- 
 quirer ; and accordingly, on the daiy 
 chosen for this grand disclosure, his Ex- 
 cellency, accompanied by some of his 
 countrymen, waited on the Monk, who 
 exhibited in elucidation the following 
 scene of phantasmagoria. 
 
 The Ambassador and his friends on 
 their arrival were shewn by a secular 
 brother into a very large and spacious 
 room, on the walls of which were in-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. ») 
 
 scribed many sentences from sacred 
 and prophane writ, confirmatory of the 
 supernatural gift denominated the spirit 
 of prophecy. While the Eng-lishmen 
 were decyphering these various scraps 
 of literature, the Monk entered, in the 
 full habit of his order, and seated him- 
 self in a chair that was elevated about 
 one step above the seats on which his 
 auditors were placed. He then desired 
 them, without fear or affright, to observe 
 all that should pass in review before 
 them, and to commit it to posterity, as- 
 suring them of no hurt, but protesting 
 they should now have the words of his 
 response fully explained. 
 
 No sooner had the holy father said 
 these words, than, waving his wand once 
 gently round, the lights by which the 
 room was illuminated became suddenly 
 extinct, except one hanging lamjD, which 
 slowly ascended, so that its flame was 
 perfectly enveloped in a cylindrical 
 B 2
 
 4 BLIGHTED AMBITION * OR^ 
 
 chimney, that resembled an opaque shade. 
 In this gloomy and wavering light a 
 curtain was drawn up at one end of the 
 room, and presented a beautiful landscape 
 of Bosworth Field in the moment of vic- 
 tory. But the Ambassador had scarcely 
 time to contemiplate this aerial picture, 
 when the whole scene was changed ; the 
 room was illuminated, and every object 
 wore its natural brilliancy and tone of 
 colouring. 
 
 The Monk now again waved the 
 white wand he held in his hand, and im- 
 mediately a door opened, and there en- 
 tered the room a lusty stout young gentle- 
 man, strong and of large proportions, 
 with a very furious, yet majestical look. 
 His doublet was richly ornamented, and 
 he wore in his hat, which inclined on one 
 side of his head, a full plume of white 
 feathers. His manner was blunt, but 
 active ; and he wore on his thigh a large 
 strong sword, by which he seemed in no
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 
 
 ways encumbered. As he advanced to- 
 wards the upper end of the room, where 
 the conjuror was seated, to the astonish- 
 ment of the Ambassador and his friends, 
 there instantly appeared a crown, laid 
 upon a fair table. The gallant with much 
 jollity approached this crown, put it 
 upon his head, and walked up and down 
 the chamber with much strutting and 
 bravery. But at last, as i^ were with 
 much reluctance, he repaired to the place 
 where he first took up the crown, and 
 there gently laid it down with some 
 obeisance, and disappeared, seeming to 
 sink into the ground. 
 
 ** Do but think 
 
 How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown ; 
 
 Within whose circuit is Elysium, 
 
 And all that poets feign of bliss and joy." 
 
 The figure of Richard the Third ex- 
 tended on the field, was not more like 
 that " bear whelp" than the phantom
 
 OR, 
 
 that disappeared was like Henry the 
 Seventh. 
 
 The Monk again waved his wand^ the 
 door opened as before^ and there entered 
 a " young youth," full of modesty, and 
 looking carefully on the beholders ; he 
 went to that part of the room w^here the 
 crown lay, and with some difficulty put 
 it on his head. The phantom then tra- 
 versed the room a little while ; with 
 some labour and pains he discharged his 
 head of its heavy burden, and having 
 assigned the crown to its proper seat, 
 vanished as an apparition before the eyes 
 of mortal men. 
 
 " 'Tis better to be lowly born. 
 
 And range with bumble livers in content. 
 Than lobe perk'd up in a glittering grief. 
 And wear a golden sorrow.*" 
 
 While the distinguished foreigners 
 were wrapt in surprise and astonishment 
 by the unaccountable manner in which
 
 thl: rise and fall of somerset. 7 
 
 til is last person disappeared ; for he seem- 
 ed to undergo some extraordinary trans- 
 mutation, that in an instant left upon 
 their minds no other impression than the 
 dreamer has of a phantom in a dream ; 
 the Monk waved his wand, the lights 
 vanished, and images of the Ambassador 
 and his friends were formed on the dis- 
 tant curtain, having all the similitude 
 one thing could have of another. 
 
 " The illusions of darkness," said the 
 Monk, " are but verifications of my 
 power to elucidate the sealed response 
 which I gave to his Excellency. If I 
 shew you the living, and ye be not satis- 
 fied, I shall conjure from their tombs the 
 ghosts of departed men of your Isle.'- 
 As he spoke this, the lamp was perfectly 
 enveloped in its opaque shade, and the 
 total darkness of the place was only in- 
 terrupted by flashes of lightning, suc- 
 ceeded by peals of thunder. Then there 
 seemed to walk on the remote wall,
 
 8 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 painted figures, moulded in relievo, of 
 the kings of England, from William the 
 Conqueror to Richard the Third. The 
 Black Prince appeared in complete ar- 
 mour, with his squire and steed, in all 
 its housings and war-gear. " These," 
 said the magician, as the Third Richard 
 disappeared, " these are all subject to my 
 power in this place, and even forms more 
 hideous and terrific than the imagination 
 of my spectators ever fancied. Our 
 vouchers now are ended — Mars^ Piter, 
 I have explained ; and now for Alecto, 
 Virgo, VidpeSy Leo, Nullus,^'' 
 
 The room was once more restored to 
 the full blaze of many lights, and the 
 door at the further end opening, a lady^ 
 in mourning attire, of a sad counte- 
 nance, and much gravity, with a book 
 in her hand, entered before the specta- 
 tors. She walked demurely to the 
 upper end of the chamber, put the crown 
 upon her head, and then stepped a
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 9 
 
 few paces up and down with much sad- 
 ness, and evidently discontented by her 
 looks. She then repaired to the table 
 where the other apparitions had put 
 down the crown, and there also she de- 
 posited it, vanishing like her prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 The next in order that appeared was 
 a young lady, clothed in stately apparel, 
 and wearing a countenance both cheerful 
 and lively. She advanced to the upper 
 end of the room, and there with much 
 cheerfulness put the crown upon her 
 head, and afterwards, for a pretty space 
 of time, with much majesty and state, 
 passed up and down the apartment, and 
 then gently left the crown in the place 
 she received it, vanishing instantly out 
 of sight. 
 
 The room all of a sudden became dark 
 
 again, the hanging lamp rose into its 
 
 conical covering, and, on the further 
 
 wajl, there appeared, first, tSe word 
 
 B 3
 
 10 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OK, 
 
 Alecto, in crimson colour, and that of 
 i^irgo, in silvery white, with some drops 
 of blood, as it were, sullying the three 
 first letters. When the spectators had 
 looked on these phantasmagorical illu- 
 sions for a moment, the lights were 
 restored ; the door opened as before. 
 
 And there advanced immediately into 
 the centre of the room, another appa- 
 rition in the dress of a huntsman, with 
 a horn by his side, in rich green apparel. 
 He no sooner espied the crown, than, 
 without any ceremony, he put it upon 
 his head, and, with much carelessness, 
 walked many times up and down the 
 chamber ; but at last repaired to the 
 same place where the rest had disposed 
 of the glittering bauble, and there quietly 
 left it. 
 
 " Glory is like a circle in the water, 
 Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, 
 Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought^'*
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 11 
 
 The huntsman had no sooner '^ strutted 
 his hour upon the stage/' and " vanished 
 into airy nothing," than a fierce young 
 man, active and nimble, entered into the 
 chamber, and made great haste to the 
 upper end where the crown lay, which 
 he snatched up in great eagerness, and, 
 putting it on his head, made many 
 nimble turnings from one end of the 
 room to the other. But when it was 
 expected that he should, in gentlewise, 
 lay down the crown, as all the rest had 
 done before him, behold ! both he and 
 the crown vanished out of sight, and 
 appeared no more, to the great wonder- 
 ment and fear of the Ambassador and 
 the English gentlemen then present. 
 
 His Excellency now besought the 
 Monk to explain this strange phenome- 
 non ; but the conjuror declared, that as 
 he had neither in the words of the re- 
 sponse, nor in the apparitions that eluci- 
 dated those words, expressed more or
 
 12 
 
 less than the truth, he must leave to 
 time all further explanation of his sense 
 and meaning, 
 
 *^ Princes liave but their titles for their glories, 
 And outward honour for an inward toil ; 
 And, for unfelt imaginations. 
 They often feel a world of endless cares : 
 So that, between their titles and low name. 
 There's nothing differs but the outward fame/' 
 
 The story we have now given was 
 very popular in England when Lilly 
 made up his Collection of Ancient and 
 Modern Prophecies in 1640. That 
 curious writer goes even so far as to say, 
 that he had, twenty years before, heard 
 the Roman priests much speak of it, 
 and he believes that the foreknowledge 
 of it was a strong inducement, in the 
 reign of King Charles the First, to go 
 on with " activenesse against Protes- 
 tantisme, as for some years they have 
 done."
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 13 
 
 The vision of the green king is also 
 alluded to by Osborne in his " Tradi- 
 tional Memoires ;" so that whether the 
 Ambassador of Henry the Seventh was 
 merely imposed on by a second Friar 
 Bacon, and an optical illusion resembling* 
 our modern phantasmagoria ; the popu- 
 larity of the vision in the seventeenth 
 century, its application to the second 
 of the Stuart line on the English throne, 
 the interpretation of Nullus by the 
 Commonwealth under that great and 
 bad man, Oliver Cromwell, gave the 
 Latin Hexameter an importance which 
 we cannot assign it. A striking but 
 unfavourable likeness of James the First 
 appeared in print, bearing, belov/ the 
 engraving, the response of the Italian 
 Monk, after that monarch's decease. 
 And the cavaliers who perused the pic- 
 ture at the time of the restoration, in- 
 stead of insisting that the prophecy was 
 confuted by the accession of Charles II.
 
 14 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 endeavoured to give it a different turn, 
 owing to his Majesty reigning for a year 
 before his coronation, as if, during that 
 space, he had been, as it were, a king 
 and no king. But these were days of 
 superstition, when the catholics, who 
 believe in transubstantiation and in the 
 efficacy of prayers to saints, were pro- 
 nounced heathenish idolators ; when 
 protestants, who would not believe, with- 
 out evidence, in prophecies said to be 
 uttered by divine inspiration, and in 
 miracles that ran counter to the usual 
 course of nature since the days of the 
 apostles, were pronounced by the catho- 
 lics, heretics and pagans. Witchcraft, 
 magic, apparitions, the declaration of 
 the will of Heaven by omens, the for- 
 tunes of individuals affected by things 
 indifferent in themselves, as for example, 
 the illusions of the Italian Monk, or by 
 things deemed lucky or unlucky ; and 
 that diseases could be cured by words.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 15 
 
 charms, and incantations ; these, all 
 these, were popularly believ^ed by people 
 who thought it false and irrational to 
 suppose there ever was on earth a race 
 of men who walked on one leg, and 
 had their eyes in their breast ; or that 
 there .were giants ninety feet high ; 
 yet their credulity— superstition, if the 
 reader will, was not, probably, greater 
 than Josephus's, the Jewish historian, 
 who relates, that he saw^ a certain Jew, 
 named Eleazar, draw the devil out of an 
 old woman's nostrils, by the application 
 of Solomon's seal to her nose, in the 
 presence of the Emperor Vespasian. 
 Even Socrates believed that he was 
 guided by a demon ; Lord Bacon be- 
 lieved in witchcraft ; Henry IV. one of 
 the most illustrious of monarchs, was 
 very uneasy before his assassination, on 
 account of some prophecies ; Sully was 
 kept faithful to his king', because La 
 Brosse predicted that Henry Quatre
 
 16 BLIGHTED AMBfTION ; OR^ 
 
 would make his fortune ; the astrologer 
 Morin directed Cardinal Richelieu's mo- 
 tions in some of his journeys ; Cud worth 
 defended prophecies in general ; the 
 predictions of Rice Evans were support- 
 ed by Warburton and Jortin ; and Dr. 
 Johnson, " the leviathan of literature,'' 
 believed in ghosts, hobgoblins, and the 
 second sight I 
 
 f
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. IT 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 '* The Saxon and the Dane, scourged with sharp steel, 
 (So did the Norman Duke) this beauteous land ; 
 A gentler ruling in this change we feel, 
 Our lion comes as meekly as a dove 
 Xot conquering us by hurt but hearty love." 
 
 THE shepherd's SPRING SONG. 
 
 At the period when Englishmen scan- 
 ned the prophecy of the Italian Monk, 
 it was the fashion for the principal gen- 
 try, lords, courtiers, and men of all pro- 
 fessions, not merely mechanical, to meet 
 in the middle aisle of St. Paul's church 
 by eleven, and walk till twelve; and 
 after dinner from three till six. As it 
 was in Athens of olden time, so was it 
 here in the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century. In regard to the universal 
 commerce of the world, there happened
 
 18 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 little that did not arrive in this sacred 
 mart of intellectual exchange. 
 
 Young men, in general, resorted to 
 the aisle of St. Paul's, for lack of more 
 advantageous employment, at the period 
 of which we write ; and associated them- 
 selves, at those hours, with the choicest 
 company they could pick out. They 
 who were studious, talked of the histo- 
 ries of past times, as great maps of de- 
 vastation, which shewed, that if one age 
 did not level what another had erected, 
 variety was lost, and no means left to 
 render the present or future generations 
 famous or infamous. The scientific pil- 
 grims who were drawn thither strove to 
 rival the well-wishers to agriculture and 
 commerce, by discoursing on Thomas 
 Tusser's " Five Hundred Pointes of good 
 Husband rie." and consoling themselves, 
 " it w^as no way strange that one who 
 could build a 'Change could change a 
 building." And if, perchance, they en-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 19 
 
 countered a political disputant — men 
 who in that age were styled '^ novekmtsP 
 they would descant on that statute which 
 contains a phillippic against " certain 
 deceitful stuff called ' logwood, or block- 
 wood,' " whose colours are represented 
 therein as '^ false and deceitful at home, 
 and discreditable beyond sea." Others 
 there were who came thither and talked 
 of '^ marriage as a trap set for flies, 
 ointed at the entrance with a little vo- 
 luptuousness, under which is contained 
 a draught of deadly wine, more prick- 
 ing and tedious than the passions it pre- 
 tends to cure, leaving the patient in lit- 
 tle quieter condition in the morning than 
 him that hath over night killed a man to 
 gratify his revenge." And there were 
 those too who in this asylum of the in- 
 quisitive cried up travelling into foreign 
 parts as " the best accomplisher of youth 
 and gentry," though detected by experi-
 
 20 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR^ 
 
 ence^ in the generality, as the greatest 
 corrupter of our national manners. 
 
 Amongst such as were anxious after 
 affairs of state, many came to " Paul's 
 Aisle," not only boldly to weigh the 
 public — but most secret actions of their 
 governors, which some vain or babbling 
 courtier might chance to betray to so- 
 ciety. The crowd of these far outnumbered 
 all the rest, for the times were big with 
 important events. The duty of Parlia- 
 ment during the dynasty of the Tudor 
 family, was canvassed with freedom, 
 because the members had been forbidden 
 to meddle with state affairs, the succession 
 and the church. The last they were 
 expressly directed to avoid in every 
 speech, which, during Elizabeth's reign, 
 opened the session. They might, how- 
 ever, direct the tanning of leather, or 
 the milling of cloth ; they might attend 
 to the preservation of game, to the
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 21 
 
 repair of bridges and the highways, 
 and to the punishment of vagabonds and 
 beggars ; but the court could do all that 
 was necessary by proclamations^ which, 
 without the durability, had, for the time 
 being, all the force of acts of Parliament. 
 
 Respecting the Prince who had now 
 arrived in the metropolis of England, 
 this crowd of peripatetic politicians enterj 
 tained opinions, as various as their hopes, 
 and fears, and prejudices were diversified 
 by family, by fortune and by education. 
 
 About nine in the morning of the 
 24th of March, 1 603, " King James of 
 blessed memory," had been proclaimed, 
 and the accession of the family of Stuart 
 to the Throne of England forms at this 
 day, not a more memorable era in the 
 history of Great Britain, than it furnished 
 matter of discourse to the newsmongeis 
 of Paul's Aisle. James was the great 
 grandson of Margaret, eldest daughter 
 of Henry VII. so that, on the failure
 
 22 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 of the male line, his hereditary title 
 remained unquestionable ; and Elizabeth 
 with her latest breaith had declared that 
 " she wished to be succeeded by her near- 
 est kinsman, the king of Scots." The 
 Crown of England, therefore, passed 
 w^ithas much tranquillity from the family 
 of Tudor to that of Stuart, as it was 
 transmitted from the paternal and well 
 beloved George III. to his illustrious and 
 accomplished son George the Fourth. 
 
 On the eventful day when James was 
 proclaimed, people of all ranks seemed 
 to have forgotten their ancient hostili- 
 ties with Scotland, and their aversion 
 against the dominion of strangers ; all 
 were solicitous to testify their satisfaction 
 with louder acclamations than were usual 
 at the accession, even of their native 
 princes. Various were the motives which 
 dictated this passive and joyous submis- 
 sion, but they may all now, in the sober 
 language of history, be resolved into the
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 23 
 
 advantages which the people of England 
 foresaw would result from a perpetual 
 alliance with Scotland. 
 
 In the metropolis of the North, the 
 joy of the people was not less noisy than 
 in that of the South, nor were the Scots 
 less proud in the giving of a king to 
 Britain, than the English were clamorous 
 to welcome him with salutations of loy- 
 alty and affection. Numbers of the 
 former prepared to accompany their 
 Prince to the South, and thousands of 
 the latter thronged the road he was to 
 pass through, impatient to see their new 
 monarch, to greet his sight with the 
 splendour of their w^ealth, to address his 
 ears with the witching tones of adula- 
 tion, and to invite him to the enjoyment 
 of that ease and pleasure which pos- 
 sessed his imagination, and which invaria- 
 bly distinguished his reign. But James 
 wanted that engaging affability by which 
 Elizabeth had captivated and kept pos-
 
 24 BLIGHTED AIVIBITION ; OR^ 
 
 session of her people's hearts, and though 
 social and familiar among his friends and 
 courtiers in the palace of Holy Rood, he 
 could not bear the fatigue of rendering 
 himself agreeable to the motley multi- 
 tude who posted to the banks of the 
 Tweed eager for preferment, and en- 
 deavouring to endear themselves to the 
 young Monarch by some merit of their 
 own, or to purchase friends to his favour 
 with the gold which lined their purses ; 
 — James, we say, though far from dis- 
 liking flattery, was still fonder of ease, 
 and unwisely issued a proclamation for- 
 bidding^ such tumultuous resort as his 
 English flatterers indulged in ; and thus, 
 at his first entrance on the soil of the 
 people he came to govern, gave occasion 
 for a disadvantageous comparison be- 
 tween his deportment and that of his 
 illustrious predecessor. 
 
 And of the topics v.^hich, for a length 
 of time afforded matter of confabulation
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOxMERSET. 25 
 
 to the newsmongers of Paul's Aisle, the 
 proclamation in question was paramount 
 because it was most impolitic. Of the 
 critics who scanned this measure, there 
 were two who agreed as to its propriety, 
 but who thereby incurred the most 
 pointed rebuke from a third, who, from 
 his manner, seemed entitled to respect, 
 even if his opinions were neither season- 
 able nor patriotic. 
 
 The two persons who agreed in opi- 
 nion were both young, and they pos- 
 sessed one advantage in common with 
 their antagonist ; all three had travelled, 
 and the younger of the party was ha- 
 bited in the fashion of the times ; though 
 in regard to their dress there was pre- 
 cisely that difference we see in our own 
 days between a beau and a sensible man, 
 who neither affects singularity for the 
 sake of observation, nor puts on the 
 oddity of eccentricity from an opinion 
 
 VOL. 1. c
 
 ^6 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 of the vanity that rules his contempO' 
 raries. 
 
 The more fashionable of these two 
 young' fellows wore a gay taffeta hat^ 
 that grew high and narrow towards the 
 top, and was adorned with a ribband, 
 ornamented by goldsmith's work and 
 precious stones. Over the broad brim 
 of this hat a beautiful feather waved 
 gracefully. His hair grew long on both 
 sides of his head, flowing in luxuriant 
 ringlets so low down as to shade his 
 shoulders. On his upper lip a pair of 
 young mustachios curled towards his 
 whiskers ; but his chin was perfectly 
 smooth. In each ear he wore a jewel, 
 an ornament no showy young man could 
 at that time dispense with. His shirt of 
 Holland's finest cloth, was curiously 
 wrought with needle-work of silk, and 
 so ingeniously stitched as to manifest the 
 greatest taste, elegance, and profuse ex-^
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 27 
 
 pence. His ruff was large, double, and 
 stiffened with yellow starch. His jacket 
 was of satin, having a large cap and long 
 close sleeves, ornamented at the wrist, 
 and separated from the body, as it were, 
 by a pair of full epaulettes, that were 
 again crossed by a rich gold cord. This 
 jacket, which was quilted, was buttoned 
 close to the body, but appeared full at 
 the chest where the stuffing was ample, 
 but very proportionate to the wearer's 
 great breadth between the shoulders. 
 His breeches, having partly discarded 
 the cumbersome and burlesque appen- 
 dage called the braguette, ended mid- 
 way down the thigh, where they were 
 met by damask stockings or hose, the 
 seams of which appeared to be set by a 
 plumb-line. His cloak was of scarlet, 
 ornamented with silk and gold embroi- 
 dery, and being gracefully buttoned, or 
 rather tied over his shoulder, gave his 
 c 2
 
 28 
 
 whole person an exceedingly agreeable 
 appearance. 
 
 His shoes were of velvety embroidered 
 with gold, and ornamented with roses 
 of a very high price. The scabbard of 
 his sword was covered also with velvet, 
 the hilt was richly gilt and set off with 
 a brocade knot, and the blade damasked, 
 thus proving its Asiatic origin. This 
 young man's name was Robert Carr. 
 
 His companion's dress was in many 
 respects similar, except that it betokened 
 a greater degree of attention to external 
 appearance ; for his hat was of beaver, 
 the most expensive of those days, of 
 French workmanship, with a massy 
 cable-band of goldsmith's work, set thick 
 with a row of precious stones, alternately 
 relieved by small brilliants, the brim 
 being thickly embroidered with gold 
 twist and spangles, and ornamented by 
 a red feather of uncommon richness of
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 29 
 
 plume. He wore gold spectacles, more 
 for fashion's sake than for necessity ; in 
 either ear hung a diamond of great 
 brilliancy. His hair flowed gracefully 
 over the sides of his head, and his beard 
 terminated with a pique devan. His 
 ruff was large, double and wired. The 
 shirt he wore was made of cambric, a 
 luxury peculiar to the beaux of that 
 period, and the sempstress had spared 
 neither taste nor labour in the mak- 
 ing to give it all the elegance which 
 needle- work could confer on it. His 
 jacket of satin, hard quilted, stuffed, 
 bombasted and sewed, bore a large cape, 
 and .its sleeves fitted the arms of the 
 wearer as closely as if they had been part 
 and parcel of his natural covering. His 
 breeches were of silk, and like his com- 
 panion's, descended halfway down the 
 thigh, where they were met by hose of 
 the finest velvet ; and his garters were 
 set thick with costly gems.
 
 30 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 These decorations of his limbs were 
 the real galey-gascoyne, cut and raced, 
 to make them gracefully befitting' the 
 upper part, and sit smoothly on the 
 lower extremities of the legs. His shoes 
 bore embroidery of gold, roses, and at 
 the toes were at least three inches square. 
 His buckles were of silver finely chased 
 and inlaid with copper gilt. His rapier 
 was long, damasked on the blade, richly 
 gilt on the handle, and lodged in a 
 delicate scabbard, covered with crim- 
 son velvet. His tawny yellow doublet 
 which surmounted the whole, was orna- 
 mented with silk, and tastefully be- 
 decked with silver embroidery. It was 
 looped on one shoulder and hung easily 
 over the other. This beau was called 
 Master James Hay. 
 
 Robert Carr was a young man of a 
 good family in Scotland, and having 
 passed some time in his travels was just 
 arrived in London, His age might be
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 31 
 
 that of two and twenty years. James 
 Hay had been sometime attached to the 
 Scottish guard of Henry IV. of France ; 
 but he had now come over by the invi- 
 tation of that Sovereign's Ambassador 
 to " share in the conquest" of king 
 James. Hay's age was somewhat more 
 than Carr's ; but he was not on that 
 account a whit the more accomplished. 
 The person of Carr was thought to 
 be very handsome by the ladies ; his 
 manner was perfectly easy, and he 
 captivated all eyes. Hay's bearing 
 was peculiarly graceful, which may be 
 accounted for from his profession ; and 
 its several points viewed separately or 
 in the aggregate, betokened one that 
 might please the eye of a courtier and 
 engage the attention of a favourite mis- 
 tress. 
 
 The object of these young men was 
 one and the same ; but there was a diffe- 
 rence in their previous life .which the
 
 32 BLIGHTED ambition; OR^ 
 
 reader must now learn. Carr had been 
 formerly a page to king James. That 
 prince however discontinued his twelve 
 pages, (for that was their number origi- 
 nally,) and supplied their places with 
 twelve running footmen, after the fashion 
 of Elizabeth's court, — these youths were 
 clothed according to their rank, and 
 each having received fifty pounds, 
 were thus dismissed the court. To re- 
 pair the fortune thus lost, young Carr 
 hastened over to France, where he 
 spent all his money, but gained in re- 
 turn a knowledge of the language, 
 and appropriated in his own person the 
 fashions of the people among whom he 
 sojourned. He had hoj)ed to succeed, 
 like many of his countrymen, at the court 
 of a Foreign prince, but he had no friends 
 to introduce him, and his purse was 
 too light to gain any by the easy channel 
 which gold opens among the ambitious 
 but needy parasites that surround a court.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 33 
 
 Seeing every hope of expectation vanish 
 abroad, and that the accession of his 
 former master to the Throne of Eng- 
 land might oifer him some chance of 
 success, he came over to Britain again 
 and from the bounty of an exiled noble- 
 man was furnished with means suffici- 
 ently ample to appear in public as a 
 dandy of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The third person whom we have 
 alluded to, was Thomas Overbury, son 
 of Nicholas Overbury, of Burton-upon- 
 the-Hill, in Gloucestershire. He had 
 been educated at Queen's College, Ox- 
 ford, and completed his studies in the 
 Middle Temple, of which his father was 
 a bencher. Having procured some favour 
 at court during the late reign, he ob- 
 tained a license to travel, and was now 
 returned to prosecute his profession of 
 the law, as the surest road to obtain dis- 
 tinction and power. 
 
 Overbury was older than either of 
 c 3
 
 34 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 the other two gentlemen, whom we 
 have introduced ; he seemed less anxious 
 to adopt the fashions of the times, and 
 his dress bespoke more of antique cos- 
 tume than was befitting his rank in so- 
 ciety. But he obviously acted on the 
 precedent of his profession, which in 
 those times bade no act of his life be 
 unworthy the gravity of his appear- 
 ance. 
 
 The conversation of this trio of 
 travellers, we have said, turned upon the 
 proclamation which king James had 
 issued, prohibiting his English subjects 
 from expressing their joy in a tumul- 
 tuous manner. Carr and Hay approved 
 of what the King did ; but Overbury 
 did not, and with much freedom of 
 speech censured both the folly of the 
 people and the impolicy of their prince 
 — Overbury hinted in conversation that 
 his opinion was that of the friends also 
 of the king and country.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 35 
 
 " And/' said he, " it is told that a dis- 
 pute ran high at York, whether the 
 Earl of Cumberland should bear the 
 sword before king James. But 'tis well 
 the King has kept her late Majesty's 
 ministers in place, for four such men 
 as Sir Thomas Egerton, ray Lord Chan- 
 cellor; Thomas Lord Buckhurst, my 
 Lord Treasurer ; Charles Earl of Not- 
 tingham, my Lord Admiral ; and Sir 
 Robert Cecil, Principal Secretary of 
 State, you will not meet in an age — the 
 meanest of them is capable of sitting at 
 the helm of any kingdom." 
 
 " But the Earls of Northumberland 
 and Cumberland, the Lord Thomas 
 Howard, and the Lord Henry Howard; 
 the one the son, and the other the bro- 
 ther of the late Duke of Norfolk, who 
 had suffered so much, that at last he 
 suffered for the Queen's mother," said 
 James Hay ; '^ count ye these not a wise 
 addition?"
 
 36 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 " Doubtless I do," replied Overbury ; 
 '' but the king should have paused before 
 he created and distributed the meaner 
 order of knighthood so very plentifully 
 on his progress — I speak not that I in- 
 vent ; I but repeat the sayings of men. 
 There, at Theobalds he hath made 
 twenty-eight-baronets. And now the 
 marvel is that a king who is no ways 
 inclined to war should have so many 
 milites. Yet in my poor opinion, I do 
 think it fit that a new prince should have 
 a vent to the passage of honour, which 
 during Elizabeth's reign had been so 
 stopped, that scarce any county in Eng- 
 land had knights enow to make up a 
 jury. But see, there goes Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, a rare spirit in these times — I 
 must speak with him." 
 
 The reader need not be told that this 
 extraordinary man suggested the first 
 idea of the colonies which England 
 posisessed in North America: but hu
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 37 
 
 original destination was the profession 
 of the law. He had greatly improved 
 himself in the inns of court, but his 
 reputation was of a mixed character, 
 derived partly from the sword and partly 
 from the gown. He served as a volun- 
 teer under the Generals Norris and 
 Grey in Ireland, as also in the low 
 countries. The late Queen admired 
 him for both the qualities we have no- 
 ticed ; but the courtiers of her latter 
 days opposed him indirectly ; and though 
 he was sometimes called to the council, 
 the oath had never been imposed upon 
 him. The opposition he met with, made 
 him '^ wisely decline himself out of the 
 court-road, and then you found him not 
 but by fame — in voyages to the West 
 Indies, Guiana, New Plantations, Vir- 
 ginia and some expeditions against the 
 Spaniards." 
 
 As early as the year 1586 he had 
 attempted a settlement in America, now
 
 38 
 
 known by the name of North Carolina; 
 he had recently returned from his voyage 
 to Guiana in South America, and sus- 
 tained a very considerable part in the 
 politics which agitated the closing years 
 of Elizabeth's reign. This accomplished 
 but extravagant and unfortunate gentle- 
 man, had, as is well know^n, after his 
 return from Guiana, borne a command 
 in the expedition under Essex, when it 
 was proposed to attack Corunna during 
 the Spanish war. Essex, ever ambitious 
 of military fame, was delayed by adverse 
 winds so long on his voyage, that the 
 provisions of his fleet failed, and a part 
 of the ships sailed for the Azores. Ra- 
 leigh arrived first, and, not waiting for 
 his commander, attacked and made him 
 self master of Fayal. This displeased 
 Essex so much, that had not Howard 
 interposed, a court martial would have 
 sat on Raleigh and his abettors. Soon 
 after the wealthy fleet from the Indie.*
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 39 
 
 came in sight, but the greater part 
 escaped through the inexperience of 
 Essex in maritime manoeuvres. The 
 prizes, however, which were taken, amply 
 reimbursed the costs of the expedition, 
 though the unhappy difference to which 
 it gave rise between Essex and Raleigh 
 laid the foundation of a mortal anti- 
 pathy, that was extinguished only in 
 death. 
 
 To Sir Walter Raleigh, Carr, Hay, 
 and Overbury introduced themselves as 
 persons of their age were wont to make 
 themselves known to their seniors, in 
 the following manner : Overbury, who 
 loved to talk in a loud or upper key, 
 either from a desire to attract atten- 
 tion to his discourse among the idle 
 groups that paced the aisle of St. Paul's, 
 or from a consciousness of his own supe- 
 riority in knowledge, was discoursing 
 with Carr on a discovery of great use 
 to mariners which had been made the
 
 40 BLIGHTED Aft^BITION ; OR, 
 
 year before by Captain Gosnold, an ex- 
 pert English seaman, in crossing the 
 Atlantic to North America without de- 
 viating to the West Indies, and passing 
 the dangerous Gulph of Florida. Ra- 
 leigh, who overheard this discourse, lis- 
 tened, perhaps as much from contempt 
 of the opinion that was passed on Gos- 
 nold, and the comparisons to which his 
 adventurous voyage led, as from a secret 
 pride to hear his profession extolled by 
 persons ignorant of its practice. Be 
 that as it may, Overbury, to whom the 
 knight's person was not unknown, pro- 
 ceeded to accost him ; and from dis- 
 coursing on navigation these four gentle- 
 men soon fell into that which was the 
 common topic of conversation, the 
 King's progress to London, and the 
 dissatisfaction created by the proclama- 
 tion to which we have already alluded. 
 But this portion of the temporary 
 polities of the day was soon cut short
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 41 
 
 by the knight, who entered upon the 
 topic of the Spanish faction, and espe- 
 cially the peace which he deprecated as 
 unwise and unseasonable. In the course 
 of conversation he dropped some hints 
 of that dark treason for which he was 
 afterwards tried in the early part of 
 James's reign, and over which the his- 
 torians of the times have cast all the 
 obscurity of partiality and prejudice. 
 
 Raleigh, however, was guarded in all 
 he said, and spoke respectfully of the 
 King, though he made very free with 
 the conduct of his Majesty's advisers : 
 Overbury thought he perceived that the 
 knight was cautious solely because he 
 found himself in the company of two 
 young ambitious Scots, and desirous to 
 pry into a matter that might eventually 
 befriend his fortune, he wished for no- 
 thing more than an opportunity to con- 
 verse privately with one Lawrency, who 
 he believed could assist him in this im-
 
 42 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OH, 
 
 portant aiFair. He, therefore, wished 
 Sir Walter Raleigh a good morning, 
 and conducted his friends to the cham- 
 bers he occupied in the Temple. 
 
 The topics discussed by the " Paul's 
 Walkers," for such the peripatetics of 
 the aisle were called, furnished matter 
 of deep confabulation to Overbury, 
 Carr, and Hay. Overbury, whose ge- 
 nius far surpassed that of the others, 
 hinted at the possibility of obtaining a 
 clue to lead them through this laby- 
 rinth. With this intimation his friends 
 were exceedingly pleased, and it was 
 finally agreed, that Overbury should 
 find out Matthew de Lawrency, with 
 whom he had come over from Holland, 
 and who made no secret to his fellow- 
 traveller that he had corresponded with 
 the Lord Cobham and Count Aremberg, 
 Ambassador extraordinary for the Arch- 
 duke. 
 
 Overbury, with all his freedom of
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 43 
 
 speech, was true-hearted and loyal ; his 
 companions, Carr and Hay, were " rapt, 
 inspired" with devotion to their liege 
 lord, and in the present instance, trusted 
 their zeal would accelerate their ad- 
 vancement to his notice. Their friend, 
 however, thought himself the deeper 
 player of the three, and soon contrived 
 to rid himself of their company, hoping 
 by his own endeavours to divine the plot 
 of which, in the language of a sports- 
 man, he had barely got scent.
 
 44 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OK, 
 
 CHAP. Til. 
 
 There is a plot against my life, my crown ; 
 All's true that is mistrusted ; that false villain 
 Whom I employed, was pre-employed by him : 
 He has discovered my design, and I 
 Remain a pinch'd thing ; yea, a very trick 
 For them to play at will. 
 
 winter's TALE. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have made 
 two statements, which it shall be our 
 object in this to explain and illustrate. 
 In the first place, we have congregated 
 in the aisle of St. Paul's a number of 
 people at a period when the vulgar 
 opinion fixes a plague among the citizens 
 of London. But this direful scourge of 
 the human race was only very partially 
 felt in the early part of the season, and
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 45 
 
 it was fully a month after the period at 
 which our story begins, that the people 
 of London fled into the country to avoid 
 its pestilential influence. Secondly, in 
 regard to the conspiracy of the Lords 
 Cobham and Grey, and Sir Walter Ra- 
 leigh, we have undertaken to thread a 
 maze, over which contemporary histo- 
 rians have drawn a dark veil. 
 
 As respects the correctness of our 
 statement in reference to the explanation 
 implied in our first particular, we beg 
 leave to observe, that the contagion was 
 confined, at first, to the more eastern 
 part of the city. The most crowded 
 part of London extended, in the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth century, along 
 the northern side of the Thames towards 
 Cheapside, and, with the exception of 
 Coleman-street and a few straggling 
 buildings, from Lothbury to Bishops- 
 gate-street, and from Bishopsgate-street 
 to the Tower, all was uncovered or
 
 46 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 garden ground. East of the Tower 
 there were few buildings ; Goodman's- 
 fields were enclosed pasture-grounds ; 
 Whitechapel consisted of a few houses 
 only ; Hounsditch boasted only a single 
 row of houses opposite to the City walls, 
 and Spital-fields, from the back of the 
 church, lay entirely open. In a word, 
 London, in which the plague raged in 
 the latter end of the year 1603, was 
 bounded by an ancient wall, that ex- 
 tended from the Tower along the 
 Minories to Aldgate, and thence, after 
 forming a course to the north-west be- 
 tween Bevis Marks and Camomile-street 
 and Hounsditch, it stretched in a right 
 line through Bishopsgate church-yard 
 into Cripplegate, where it assumed a 
 southern direction, and approached Al- 
 dersgate. Its course was then south- 
 west, by the back of Christ Church 
 Hospital, and Old Newgate, from w^hich 
 it ran directly south to Ludgate, passing
 
 THK RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 47 
 
 close behind the present site of the Col- 
 lege of Physicians, Stationers'-court, 
 and the London CofFee-house. From 
 Ludgate the direction was western, by 
 Cock-court to New Bridge-street, where, 
 turning to the south, it ran by the Fleet 
 Brook to a fort on the margin of the 
 Thames. No vestige of that wall now 
 exists, except in the courts between 
 Ludgate-hill and the Broadway, Black- 
 friars, and in Cripplegate church-yard. 
 Beyond this wall there were many 
 scattered buildings in various directions, 
 but chiefly on the roads leading from 
 the four principal gates erected by the 
 Romans, and those others constructed 
 in more modern times. Harry the Eighth 
 found London in a great measure re- 
 sembling a religious rather than a com- 
 mercial city ; but he demolished the 
 monasteries, and, as trade improved, the 
 avenues of the metropolis were opened ; 
 yet in the reign of Edward the Sixth,
 
 48 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 there were only forty taverns within the 
 jurisdiction of the lord mayor, and three 
 in Westminster. The parishes of St. 
 Giles's and St. Martin's were still in the 
 fields when James ascended the throne 
 of England. Tyburn was two miles 
 out of London then, and the Strand was 
 distinguished as the residence of the 
 principal nobility. Spring- Gardens ex- 
 tended from Cockspur-street to the 
 Treasury, which now occupies the site 
 of the Cockpit and Tilt-yard, opposite 
 to which stood the Palace of Whitehall. 
 Drury-lane, Covent- Garden, High Hol- 
 born, Oxford-street, Piccadilly, Pall- 
 Mall, St. James's-street, the Haymarket, 
 were all fields or lanes. 
 
 On the southern bank of the Thames, 
 commonly called the " Surrey side," 
 there were but six or seven houses from 
 Lambeth Palace to the shore opposite 
 to White Friars, where a line of houses 
 with gardens commenced, which were
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 49 
 
 continued to Winchester House, in 
 Southwark. On the site of the present 
 Christ Church, in Blackfriars-road, 
 stood a theatre, with gardens, laid out 
 for company, and denominated '^ Paris 
 Gardens." Opposite to Queenhithe, that 
 is to say, at the southern extremity of 
 the cast-metal bridge now crossing the 
 Thames at that place, w^ere Queen Eliza- 
 beth's Bear Gardens, being a circular 
 range of buildings, in which that virgin 
 Princess witnessed bull and bear-bait- 
 ings. London Bridge was encumbered 
 with shops, and resembled a modern 
 bazaar ; and Tooley-street w^as a popu- 
 lous quarter of Southwark. Around 
 Westminster Abbey were numerous 
 crowded buildings ; and along the mar- 
 gin of the river, from St. Stephen's 
 chapel towards Ranelagh, there were 
 some indifferent houses. The village of 
 Lambeth had few buildings of note ; 
 Chelsea, Hammersmith, Bow, Bulwich, 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 Hackney , Ham pstead , Kensin gton , Rich- 
 mond, Hampton Court, and Greenwich, 
 were all villages of some consequence 
 in the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century, and to these and other retired 
 spots the more wealthy citizens of 
 London retired when the contagion 
 of the plague rendered their town resi- 
 dence both precarious and disagreeable. 
 The lawyers in the Temple were 
 under little apprehension, and those who 
 resided west of Temple-bar considered 
 themselves tolerably safe. Overbury 
 ranked among the former, his two friends 
 among the latter. Their lodgings were 
 in a private family house in St. Martin's 
 in the fields, and here also Raleigh for 
 the present lived with his friend Lord 
 Cobham, whose delightful residence of 
 Durham-house has transmitted its name 
 to a miserable lane leading down to the 
 subterraneous mansions of the Adelphi. 
 Thus much for explanation; and now,
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 51 
 
 to complete our illustration, we shall 
 detain the reader but a very short space. 
 But in furtherance thereof we must in- 
 troduce Master Thomas Overbury. 
 
 This gentleman, agreeable to the plan 
 formed between him, Carr, and Hay, 
 proceeded to the residence of Lawrency, 
 whom he found in close debate wnth 
 Captain Kemisb, the bosom friend of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh. They were, at the 
 moment of Overbury's introduction, dis- 
 coursing on something respecting the 
 late Earl of Essex, Cecil, and the Earl 
 Northumberland, — for all these names 
 met his ear in a trice. But Kemish 
 dropped his argument on a sudden, nor 
 did he break silence and resume it till 
 Lawrency, perceiving his embarrassment, 
 assured him that " Master Overbury was 
 a gentleman of parts and of honour, free 
 in speech w^ithall, and apt in council, if 
 entrusted." 
 
 Taking courage, therefore, from this 
 D 2 
 
 0, OF fcLL. IXd.
 
 62 BLIGHTED AxMBIl ION ; OR, 
 
 remark^ and perceiving also from the 
 last words of Captain Kemish's discourse 
 the chord on which he should strike, 
 Overbury observed, that '^^ Sir Robert 
 Cecil shewed himself a very wise man, 
 in the present conjuncture, by not only 
 reconciling himself to the King, but by 
 securing his Majesty's favour, when, as 
 one of the enemies of Essex, he had the 
 Sovereign's wrath to dread." 
 
 " Belike he hath," replied Kemish ; 
 " but I can assure you he is beclouded 
 in the King's favour still ; and much he 
 is hated in England by reason of the 
 fresh bleeding of that universally be- 
 loved favourite, the late Earl of Essex." 
 
 " If Essex had not been taken off," 
 said Overbury, " think you he would not 
 have vindicated the English freedom, 
 rather than have brought in a stranger, by 
 reviving such ancient privileges as had 
 been pretermitted during the tyrannical 
 reigns of the two last Henries, and which
 
 THE KISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 53 
 
 were in no ways indulged by Eliza- 
 beth." 
 
 This question seemed to startle the 
 Captain, who very loosely replied, that 
 " no acts of Elizabeth were ever re- 
 gistered so contrary to the grain of her 
 people as the death of this man. 
 But whether this nation be capable of 
 that absolute freedom you allude to, we 
 must leave to the arbitration of time. 
 The diverse titles and disparity of estates 
 in England seem to oppose your idea 5 
 only this I am confident of, that no fair 
 capitulation could have disobliged King 
 James, who lays under too many doubts 
 and strong desires to have refused so 
 peaceable an entry as he has found, upon 
 any lawful limitations." 
 
 Overbury, who caught the dark insi- 
 nuation conveyed in this passage, said 
 interrogatively, " And you think that if 
 Essex had remained true to his princi- 
 ples, James might have been saluted on
 
 54 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR^ 
 
 the Borders by an army strong enough 
 to have moderated the Scot's conditions, 
 or advanced his own ?" 
 
 " It is the universal opinion," said 
 Kemish, " and I need not contradict it^ 
 that the Earl's ambition, like the great 
 Earl of Warwick's, was king-making — 
 a desire to bring in King James as his 
 own act. But for the matter of his 
 ambition, it got lopped off with the same 
 axe that beheaded Anne Bulleyn ; I won- 
 der whose carcass that hatchet will next 
 be employed on ?'* 
 
 " If the crown were the mistress Essex 
 wooed," replied Overbury, '' the media- 
 tion of her native subjects was a decent 
 go-between ;" adding that " he under- 
 stood Essex might have spun out the 
 Irish war, had he not been deceived by 
 his enemies. Nay, if the great families 
 of Ireland could not have furnished him 
 with an army, after the decease of his 
 Mistress, that he might have any men
 
 THE RISE AND FALL Ob SOMERSET. 55 
 
 or money from the Most Catholic King, 
 who would have advanced his designs, 
 or any natural English subject's else that 
 had but opposed the Scottish succession." 
 
 " Success in those that wear it," in- 
 terrupted Kemish, " like aquafortis, 
 expunges all former acts of allegiance 
 and fidelity ; and how Essex would have 
 behaved in the company of absolute 
 power^ may be safer now to be disputed 
 hy us, than at that time experimented 
 by the Queen." 
 
 Overbury, who judged he had beaten 
 about the bush long enough, returned to 
 his old ground, and noticed the advance- 
 ment of Cecil to the ranks of nobility. 
 This turned the Captain's thoughts to 
 the past, and he positively declared 
 " that Essex would have removed Cecil 
 but for the genius of Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 His accusation of the Queen's counsel- 
 lors," added the speaker, " pouring into 
 her ears such tales as were disadvantage-
 
 66 
 
 ous to the true religion and polity of the 
 state, was presumptuous and base. He 
 had no parts to advance him to the saddle 
 of sovereignty. He might have found, 
 by the feelings of parliament, the true 
 pulse of the nation ; there was no pro- 
 bability of raising a distemper from him. 
 Had he unloaded his bosom to Sir Walter 
 when he visited him at the block, we 
 should then have known whether any 
 thing but death had been able to gag a 
 person robbed of a crown." 
 
 ^' But how comes it that Sir Walter, 
 who was so zealous in opposing Essex, 
 did not also go northward with Cecil ?" 
 said Overbury. 
 
 "Go north !" ejaculated Kemish ; — 
 " think you the bearing of my friend 
 paralleleth itself with Cecil's ? — No : 
 Sir Walter hath remained in the capital, 
 the other went to York to worship the 
 Rising Sun. . He hath stuck himself to 
 Sir George Hume, and storied privately 
 in his ears such things as hath gained
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 57 
 
 him entertainment. We shall all be un- 
 der hatches, I foresee, and never appear 
 above board again, unless our purse, not 
 our wit, raise us. Now shall Cecil come 
 forth, like a giant out of his secret cham- 
 ber, and disclose to the needy Scot how 
 he may enhance his prerogative by en- 
 slaving the nation. But I hope better 
 ■fortune is prepared for Raleigh than to 
 become the servant of either Cecil, or 
 James's barber, Sir Roger Aston. — But, 
 adieu ! I must to my Lord Cobham's.— 
 Lawrency, you'll not fail." 
 
 " One moment," said Overbury : " did 
 not the king intimate to the Lord Cob- 
 ham and Sir Walter Raleigh, when he 
 heard of their intention to meet him on 
 his progress, that they should spare their 
 labour ?" 
 
 " Aye, Sir," rejoined Kemish, in an 
 angry tone. '^ And your kin§[ sent to en- 
 large theEarl of Southamptori at the same 
 time, and appointed him to meet him 
 D 3
 
 58 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 on the way. But this hath bred no good 
 blood to those that have been interdicted. 
 Adieu, Lawrency : fail not." And there- 
 upon Captain Kemish walked away. 
 
 Overbury now proceeded to examine 
 Lawrency as to his knowledge of some 
 things hinted at by the Captain, and 
 gained just information enough to make 
 him desirous of acquiring more. In the 
 evening he proceeded to keep his ap- 
 pointment with Carr and Hay ; but, in 
 place of meeting them, he received a note 
 w4iich had been forwarded to mine host 
 of the "Mitre/' in Cheap, apprising him, 
 that Hay had been summoned to attend 
 at Theobalds, the Marquis de Beaumont, 
 (ambassador from France at London,) 
 and that he had advised Carr to accom- 
 pany him thither. 
 
 "' Upon my troth," said Overbury, 
 loud enough to be heard by the landlord, 
 '' this looks indeed like hide and seek. 
 These young fellows have got the start
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 59 
 
 of me ; but this day's work must not be 
 left to the sole arbitration of chance. 
 Landlord, let me have a stoup of claret : 
 I have had disappointment enough to 
 drive me to a double cup of theologi- 
 cum." 
 
 " Cry your pardon, mon cavaliero,'' 
 said the host ; " drown your disappoint- 
 ment lest it run into excess, your excess 
 become that usurper called despair, your 
 despair that monster ycleped cruelty, 
 your cruelty that deadly and indecent 
 sin which hath neither legality nor pity 
 on earth." 
 
 " Bravo, mine host of the Mitre !" 
 said Overbury, pleased with the fellow's 
 effort at wit. '^ But you are in no haste 
 to drown my disappointment ; am I to 
 have claret or theologicum ?" 
 
 "Cry your pardon, my beau cavaliero," 
 said the host ; " your theologicum may 
 be palatable in a jovial hour, at a good 
 churchman's board ; but my claret no
 
 60 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 layman ever tasted, and wished for 
 stronger. And, in regard to its compost, 
 my craft is for eighteen gallons of good 
 wine,^a quarter of a pound of long pep- 
 per, an ounce of saffron, a quarter of an 
 ounce of coriander, and a third of as 
 much honey that is clarified as of your 
 wine." 
 
 " But you forget your calomel dro- 
 maticus, two ounces," interrupted Over- 
 bury : '^ you no doubt strain the whole 
 through a cloth, and do it into a clean 
 vessel ; and thus you thrive with drink- 
 ing, and grow rich by entertainments. 
 Bring me a taper, I would now smoke." 
 
 When the landlord had brought the 
 taper, Overbury enquired what news 
 was stirring. 
 
 '^ For the matter of that," replied the 
 host, " we have news hourly ; at one 
 time, of the King, God bless him ; at 
 another, of the desolation occasioned 
 about Tower -hill and the Minories by
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 61 
 
 the pestilence. Mayhap, 'twill nip me, 
 fresh and blooming as lam to-day ; and 
 then there's the people's grief, and their 
 joy — all regretting Essex, rest hi^soul, 
 and praising Heaven, Raleigh hath. been 
 forbidden the court." 
 
 To this observation Overbury re- 
 marked, " you would not infer Queen 
 Elizabeth had been inconstant to her 
 favourite ?" 
 
 ^* Her affections, maiigre her profes- 
 sions, w^ere only skin deep. Belike she 
 had no great propensity of forgiveness 
 in her nature, my master ; or why put 
 so many in the way of Heaven for their 
 religion. Sir, I drink your very good 
 health — A plague on all your plagues : 
 we've had the proclamation only of a 
 new king ; that brought us nought save 
 an earnest of some'at ; we looked to the 
 coronation — nothing like a coronation. 
 Sir ; it's meat and drink. Sir, to the city, 
 is your coronation in Westminster ; but
 
 62 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR 
 
 this year, we'll none of it ; — and they 
 say the new Prince is magnificent, boun- 
 tiful, given to bestow all he has. Well, 
 God bless him, say T : here's his health — 
 and here's CeciPs ; that's my man will 
 convey to the King the nation's wealth 
 in buckets, in his dearness and privacy." 
 
 Here mine host of the Mitre made a 
 dead stop, and Overbury remarked that 
 Queen Elizabeth was a thrifty princess, 
 who fed her favourites with dessert 
 spoons — an observation at which the host 
 shook his head, and Overbury proceeded : 
 "■' Let me have a stoup of braket, land- 
 lord.'^ 
 
 " Mon beau cavaliero, this claret, of 
 all my artificial stuff, is prime ; doesn't 
 think so ? And, as goes the time, my 
 braket yieldeth to none in the city : but 
 thou shalt taste it anon," — and entering 
 with the jug, our host proceeded : " To 
 ilk four gallons of good ale, I put me a 
 pint of fine tried honey, and a saucer
 
 THE RFSE AND FALL OF SOMEUSET. 63 
 
 full of powder of pepper — I drink your 
 health, Sir, and confusion to the Spa- 
 niard." 
 
 But this man's conversation proving 
 in no ways agreeable to Overbury, he 
 left the " Mitre," and repaired to his 
 chambers, full of anxiety, and tired by 
 exertion. On the morrow, as Overbury 
 sat eating his toast and ale at breakfast, 
 he was surprised by a visit from Law- 
 rency, who, among other matters, hinted 
 to him that Sir Walter Raleigh was that 
 day going to Theobalds, to present the 
 King with a mem.orial against the peace 
 with Spain. 
 
 *' And now," said Overbury, " Senor, 
 let me crave you will put me in your 
 confidence touching this affair of which 
 Captain Kemish spoke ? Know you 
 aught of any project to the prejudice of 
 this country, the king, or his ministers ? 
 You are a foreigner ; and either you shall 
 inform me, or those who can will com- 
 pel you."
 
 64 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 " Simply, then," replied the terriiied 
 foreigner, " I know, my Lord Cobham 
 and Raleigh have had many conferences; 
 that my Lord Cobham has had inter- 
 views with Monseigneur le Compte ; and 
 that if you. Monsieur Overbury, should 
 feel disposed to be a party in the plot, 
 you shall reap great advantage." 
 
 " Villain !" exclaimed Overbury," you 
 shall repent jou. of this proposal. Meet 
 me to-night by moon-light in the Tem- 
 ple garden, and explain to me all you 
 know of this matter, or expect to-mor- 
 row to be stretched on the rack."
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 66 
 
 CHAPTER. IV. 
 
 I'll read you matter deep and dangerous ; 
 As full of peril and adventurous spirit 
 As to o'ervvalk a current roaring loud. 
 On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. 
 
 THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV. 
 
 This poor wretch Lawrency, who could 
 in one breath talk of treason m a foreign 
 state, and prefer advantage to one of its 
 leige subjects, could equally dissemble in 
 what more immediately concerned him- 
 self; and he accordingly promised to meet 
 Overbury in the evening in the Temple 
 Gardens. This appointment Lawrency 
 had no intention of keeping ; and to be 
 even with Overbury he hastened to dis- 
 close to Sir Robert Cecil, the conspiracy 
 which was then hatching. Cecil who
 
 66 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 knew far more of this affair than Law- 
 rency could inform him, yet listened in 
 amazement as the fellow mentioned the 
 names of Lords Cobham and Grey, Sir 
 Griffin Markham, Masters George 
 Brook, Copley, Watson, and Clark. Sir 
 Robert then demanded if these were all 
 who were implicated ? — The informer 
 replied in the negative, and mentioned 
 the names of Sir Walter Raleigh and of 
 Captain Kemish. 
 
 ^^ And now for their speech, Senor 
 Lawrency," said the secretary Cecil. 
 ^* What have you hea^d them say ?" 
 
 " I have heard the Lord Cobham and 
 Master George Brook speak these 
 words," said Lawrency, *'^ that there 
 would never be a good world in England 
 till the king and his cubs were taken 
 away ; and Sir Walter Raleigh hath 
 now a book written against the royal 
 title of the king ; — and moreover the 
 Lord Cobham hath moved Master Brook
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 67 
 
 to incite the lady Arabella Stuart, to 
 write to the Archduke, the King of 
 Spain, and the Duke of Savoy, to pro- 
 cure them to advance her title." 
 
 ^' Now you must attend me to the 
 Painted Chamber," said Cecil, " and 
 there, before the Lords depose to those 
 matters." 
 
 The mention of appearing in the 
 Court of the Star Chamber, frightened 
 Lawrency much more than Overbury's 
 threat, and he used many specious 
 excuses to be kept in the back ground, 
 but none of his evasions would serve the 
 purpose for which they were made. — 
 Cecil had that morning been presented 
 by the King with Raleigh's memorial, 
 drawn up in energetic language, accus- 
 ing the Secretary of being equally con- 
 cerned with him in the fall of Essex ; 
 nay, vindicating himself and throwing 
 the blame entirely upon the other. At 
 the end of that memorial, Sir Walter
 
 68 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 laid open the conduct of Cecil and his 
 father, the Lord Burleigh, in the matter 
 of the Queen of Scots, and, with a sin- 
 gular bitterness of style, he not only- 
 vindicated the memory of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, but laid the death of that unfortu- 
 nate Princess chiefly at the door of 
 Cecil and his father, for which he ap- 
 pealed to Davison, then in prison, and 
 the very man that had dispatched the 
 warrant for Mary's execution, contrary 
 to Elizabeth's express command. 
 
 Cecil appeared confounded by these 
 charges, but preserving his temper, he 
 ^' begged to know how Raleigh had 
 dared to approach the King after his 
 Majesty had forbidden him his presence? 
 — Having dismissed him from his oflSce 
 of captain of the Royal Guard ?" 
 
 '' Nay, man, that I cannot unriddle to 
 you," replied James ; " but the Knight 
 is neglected, and he spits his spite." 
 
 On taking leave of the King it was
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 69 
 
 CeciPs good fortune to be waited on by 
 Lawrency as we have described ; and 
 his sour face beamed with inexpressible 
 joy, when he found that Raleigh was 
 one of the persons implicated in the 
 Lady Arabella's claim. 
 
 " Now/' thought Cecil with himself, 
 ''now my old and staunch friend, that did 
 become mine enemy, is now in my power 
 — I must be brief." — Then raising his 
 voice to Lawi'ency, ^' Senor," continued 
 he. " if you confess not all before the 
 Commissioners, you shall be laid on your 
 back, and we'll see if the rack can wring 
 knowledge from your obdurate heart." 
 
 This was the second time, to-day, that 
 the poor wretch had been terrified with 
 the name of that infernal engine of 
 tyrannv, and his colour entirelv forsook 
 him. — He fell on his knees and declared 
 he would discover all, if he were but 
 spared this torture. — The Secretary hav- 
 ing ordered a guard to keep Lawrency in
 
 70 
 
 close custody till he was called for, has- 
 tened to the King to make known the 
 secret he had gained. 
 
 James either was, or pretended to be, 
 horror-struck ; he had, in the mean time 
 that Cecil was absent from him, received 
 a second memorial from Raleigh against 
 peace with Spain ; — but in conclusion 
 the Knight took occasion to avoid hinting 
 at any resentment the King might enter- 
 tain, as well upon his former as upon his 
 present representation, and, in respect- 
 ful but confident language, he trusted 
 in the justice of his procedure respecting 
 his first, and on his allegiance to the 
 King concerning his second memorial. 
 
 Cecil, however, had now the means, 
 and he lacked not inclination to crush his 
 mighty rival; andthe King, who, though 
 he easily digested the death of his mo- 
 ther, could not be brought heartily to 
 forgive any of Essex's enemies, broke 
 out in violent expressions of rage against
 
 THL RISE AND FALL OF S0MEU8LT. 71 
 
 the conspirators;, and declared he had 
 heard from another quarter of the dis- 
 affection which was abroad ; however, 
 he would crush his enemies. 
 
 '^ And from w^hom might your Ma- 
 jesty learn more than your servant hath 
 now made known ?" asked Cecil. 
 
 '' Count Harlay de Beaumont/' said 
 James, "" hath pre- ad vised me to ar- 
 rest the Lords Cobham and Grey, Master 
 George Brook, and even Raleigh, who 
 speaks, I hear, loudly of the Lady Ara- 
 bella's name. — Nay more, here I've a 
 letter from her, which she hath had from 
 the Lord Cobham, exhorting her to put 
 up for my crown." 
 
 Cecil exclaimed, 'Uhe Count de Beau- 
 mont, marvellous ! then his spies are 
 more adept than mine! — Will your Ma- 
 jesty allow me to look at the Lord Cob- 
 ham's letter ?" 
 
 " You may, but my word 's as true 
 as your eyes, in any light," said James.
 
 72 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 Cecil bowed. The King was, however, 
 examining some new hunting-gear, and 
 observed not the obeisance of his minister. 
 We will, therefore, take advantage of 
 the pause thus produced to explain the 
 simple fact of the King's knowledge of 
 this treason before Cecil became ac- 
 quainted with the direct accusation of 
 Lawrency. 
 
 The fact, then, was simply this ; Mas- 
 ter James Hay, on arriving at Theo- 
 balds, lost not a moment in announcing 
 to the French ambassador the news he 
 had gleaned among the novalants of 
 Paul's Aisle, and this the Marquis con- 
 firmed himself in, that very evening, by 
 means of a spy. — Cecil, who felt cha- 
 grined that he had been supplanted in 
 this very important intelligence, no 
 sooner caught the attention of the King, 
 than he requested his Majesty would con- 
 fer in his presence with the Marquis re- 
 specting his knowledge of the treason.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMEUSET. 73 
 
 ^' With all my heart, Robin," said 
 the King; " let the ambassador be called, 
 I dare say he can speak for himself." 
 
 " But your Majesty," rejoined Cecil, 
 " will be pleased to recollect my se- 
 cret correspondence with your Majesty 
 while you were in your kingdom of 
 Scotland; — you must remember that 
 I gave your Highness notice of the dia- 
 bolical triplicity that met every day at 
 Durham House." 
 
 ^' True, Robin, true," replied the King, 
 *^ but a' which the best wits of the city 
 could make out, amounted only to sun- 
 dry suspicions." 
 
 "And they are now verified," rejoined 
 Cecil, " the cockatrice eggs that were 
 daily and nightly sat upon, are now 
 hatched and have brought forth.— But 
 let the Marquis be called." 
 
 De Beaumont was accordingly called 
 into the King's presence, and James pe- 
 
 YOL. I. E
 
 74 
 
 remptorily demanded his authority for 
 the intelligence he had communicated. 
 
 "^ I know some in the kingdom who 
 have certainly a plot against the state," 
 replied the Ambassador. 
 
 " I expected better from you," said 
 James ; ^^ pray, Monsieur le Marquis, 
 where is this hatching ?" 
 
 " In Durham House and at Green- 
 wich," was the reply. 
 
 " Indeed I" exclaimed James, " if that 
 be the picture-drawer's shop, why are 
 not my own servants better acquainted 
 than you. Monsieur le Marquis, with 
 the work and the workmen ?" As the 
 King said this, he looked fixedly in 
 Cecil's face. — "I am plagued like a 
 woman in travail, till I know what 
 misshapen figure they are drawing," 
 added his Majesty, obviously alluding 
 to the pranks of wizards, or the con- 
 jurations of necromancers, of which
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET, 75 
 
 he entertained strong and lively super- 
 stitious fears. 
 
 '^ I will make an open passage to you 
 at once," said Beaumont, '^ and inform 
 your Highness, without offence, how 
 matters stand." 
 
 "On that point I would hear you," 
 said the King, " that I may compare it 
 with some parcels of my intelligence." 
 
 " Sir," said the Marquis, " another 
 would, perhaps, blush when I tell you 
 the heifer I plough with ; but knowing 
 mine innocency, the worst that can 
 happen is to be laughed at. Your 
 Highness has often seen the Count 
 Aremberg ; we are friends because we 
 are foreigners. I have discovered him* 
 to be a wanton, and an humble servant 
 of the English beauties, but above all, of 
 one in Lambeth ; a wit she is, and one 
 that must be courted with news and oc- 
 currences at home and abroad, as well 
 as with gifts. I have a friend that 
 £ 2
 
 76 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 bribed her in my name to send me an 
 account of such tidings as her paramour 
 Aremberg brings her ; — this is my dark 
 lanthorn, and I am not ashamed to re- 
 quire a Dalilah to resolve a riddle." 
 
 '' If the devil make her a sinner/' 
 said the King merrily, " I see you make 
 good use of her sin." 
 
 '^ If your Majesty would to the bot- 
 tom," continued Beaumont, '^arrestLaw- 
 rency as a priest — or rather Watson — 
 there is his address," added the ambas- 
 sador, laying down at the same time a 
 paper inscribed with the names of these 
 two men, and their places of residence. 
 
 " Lawrency is secure," said Cecil, 
 '^ he has confessed to myself what he 
 knows of this treason, and I have him 
 under guard." 
 
 "Then," continued Beaumont, "do you 
 make out a minute of the heads of all the 
 articles in this complot as I shall dictate, 
 8^nd if they correspond not with the
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 77 
 
 confessions you may extort from the 
 conspirators, except from Grey and 
 Raleigh, I shall not appear again at 
 court. But for the security of the im- 
 peachment, let no two of the parties be 
 produced personally to confront each 
 other ; — all will fail, unless this rule be 
 observed." 
 
 Both James and his secretary ap- 
 proved of the advice of the subtle 
 Frenchman — the minute was drawn — 
 and, without loss of time, orders were 
 issued for the arrest of the Lords Cob- 
 ham and Grey, as also Brook, Copley, 
 Watson, and Clark. 
 
 Beaumont then very delicately apprised 
 his Majesty of the humble instrument 
 by whom he had been induced to pry 
 into this business. James was pleased 
 to hear the Marquis had his intelligence 
 of the " Paul's Walkers" from a Scotch- 
 man, and a cavalier who had served in 
 the regiment of his countrymen who
 
 78 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 guarded the person of Henry Quatre. 
 Moreover, the King desired the Mar- 
 quis might take an opportunity of in- 
 troducing James Hay to himself, that 
 he might personally thank him for the 
 service he had rendered his king and 
 country.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 79 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Last, those who boast of mighty mischiefs done, 
 Enslave their country, or usui^ a throne ; 
 Or who their glory's dire foundation laid 
 On sov'reigns ruin'd, or on friends betrayed; 
 Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix, 
 Of crooked counsels and dark politicks; 
 Of these a gloomy tribe surround the throne. 
 And beg to make th' immortal treasons known. 
 
 *********** 
 They flying rumours gather'd as they roll'd, 
 Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told ; ^ 
 
 And all who told it added something new, 
 And all who heard it made enlargements too ; 
 In every ear it spread, on every tongue it grew. 
 
 pope's temple of fame. 
 
 Theobalds, the splendid mansion of 
 Elizabeth, Lord Burleigh, and now the 
 seat of his second son, Robert Cecil,
 
 80 BLIGHTED ambition; OR, 
 
 Earl of Salisbury, was at this period 
 the residence of the King. For situa- 
 tion, contrivance, building, prospects, 
 and other necessaries, to make a com- 
 plete seat, it gave way to few mansions 
 in England. 
 
 To this delightful spot Cecil had con- 
 trived to bring the King, in consequence 
 of the plague, which, at the period of 
 his Majesty's arrival in England, pre- 
 vailed in the metropolis. Upon the 
 evening of the eventful day when 
 James and his secretary had planned the 
 arrest of the conspirators, a grand enter- 
 tainment was to be given at Theobalds, 
 in honour of the Queen's arrival, and 
 CeciPs surrender of this mansion for the 
 use of the royal family. The affairs of 
 state, which more immediately belonged 
 to Cecil's department, were managed 
 by a plurality. The assistant secretary 
 was Sir Thomas Lake, who had been 
 bred a statesman under Walsingham^ in
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 81 
 
 the former reign. This remarkable per- 
 sonage had obtained the name of Swift- 
 sure, from the circumstance of his abi- 
 lity to indite, write, and discourse, at 
 the same time. His dexterity and dis- 
 patch were only rivalled by the solidity 
 of his understanding ; so that, from the 
 humble office of being Walsingham's 
 amanuensis, he was promoted to be the 
 Queen's clerk of the signet ; and he 
 read French and Latin daily to her, till 
 she could hear no more ; for he was 
 reading to Elizabeth when the Countess 
 of Warwick told him that the Queen 
 was departed. 
 
 James was captivated with Lake's 
 abilities, and swore that "• he was a mi- 
 nister of state fit to serve the greatest 
 prince in Europe ;" adding, that " the 
 secretary's place needed him more than 
 he it.^' 
 
 To Sir Thomas Lake the preliminary 
 part of the business referring to the com- 
 E 3
 
 82 BLIGHTED ambition; OR, 
 
 munication of Beaumont was entrusted, 
 as Cecil pretended that he could on no 
 account put off the entertainment which 
 was that day to be given at Theobalds. 
 Lake accordingly proceeded to dispatch 
 his duty, and Cecil entertained the King 
 and his courtiers. 
 
 Among the noblemen present was tin? 
 Earl of Northumberland, whom, of all 
 men except Raleigh, perhaps, the Lord 
 Salisbury most disliked. Accordingly, 
 as the minister and his sovereign were 
 inspecting the preparations for the even- 
 ing's masque, their discourse ran on the 
 plot so recently discovered. Salisbury 
 observed, that " Durham House was fre- 
 quented also by Northumberland." 
 
 James looked aghast ; but the wily 
 secretary turned the conversation by 
 ascribing the visits of Northumberland 
 to Durham House entirely to his '' in- 
 nate giddiness," and the illusion was 
 completed, for James as imperceptibly
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMEKSET. 83 
 
 broke off the discourse, though, from 
 that moment, his favourable inclinations 
 towards Northumberland were poisoned 
 beyond the relief of any antidote. 
 
 The evening came, and with it came 
 the company whom Cecil was to enter- 
 tain. — Among these was the Lord Henry 
 Howard, to whom the King seemed to 
 pay an unusual degree of attention. 
 With the secret which Beaumont pre- 
 tended to communicate, the King found 
 Howard perfectly conversant ; so at least 
 it appeared — but the truth is that Cecil 
 had contrived to put Lord Henry in 
 possession of the facts he had become 
 acquainted with, that that Lord might 
 follow up his poisoned surmise of Nor- 
 thumberland. Accordingly, in tender- 
 ness of zeal and incomparable affection 
 to King James, Lord Howard brought 
 to the royal recollection, the private 
 correspondence which had passed be- 
 tween Cecil and his Majesty ; and from
 
 84 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 thence observed that it would soon be 
 discovered how much truth that corres- 
 pondence contained, and with what depth 
 of judgment the conclusions of the wri- 
 ters were drawn. 
 
 James, to whom nothing was more 
 agreeable than reference to his own 
 works, instantly dived into this topic, 
 asking the Lord Henry, '• if he had 
 heard all the particulars of the triplicate 
 faction of Durham House ?" 
 
 Lord Henry replied that, ^' as to Ra- 
 leigh, his martial spirit would never be 
 quiet,'' adding, '^ he is always addicted 
 to Foreign affairs — what said he in a 
 letter to Cecil, urging him to precipitate 
 the death of his rival V 
 
 " Nay, I know not,'^ said James. 
 
 " Then you shall," said Howard, tak- 
 ing at the same time from his bosom a 
 letter, which he gave the King; and 
 James read as follows: ^' For after re- 
 venges fear them not; for your own father
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 85 
 
 was esteemed the contriver of Norfolk's 
 ruin, yet his son followeth your father's, 
 and loveth him. Humours of men suc- 
 ceed not, but grow by occasions and 
 accidents of time and power. Somerset 
 made no revenge on the Duke of Nor- 
 thumberland's heirs. Northumberland, 
 that now is, thinks not of Hatton's issue. 
 Kelloway lives, that murdered the bro- 
 ther of Horsey ; and Horsey let him go 
 by all his life-time. I could name you 
 a thousand of those ; and therefore after 
 fears are but prophecies, or rather con- 
 jectures from causes remote — look to 
 the present and you do wisely. His son 
 shall be the youngest earl of England 
 but one, and if his father be now kept 
 down, William Cecil shall be able to 
 keep as many men at his heels as he, 
 and more too. He may also match in 
 a better house than his, and so that fear 
 is not worth the fearing. But if the 
 father continue, he w^ill be able to break
 
 86 BMGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 the braDches, and pull up the tree, root 
 and all. Lose not your advantages ; if 
 you do, I read your destiny: —Raleigh." 
 James was horror-struck on the perusal 
 of this epistle; and his resentment seemed 
 for a moment dealt out equally upon Cecil 
 and Raleigh ; but Lord Henry Howard 
 was a man of far more talent than King 
 James ; and to his address at this mo- 
 ment may be referred the issue of Ra- 
 Jeigh's fate, as well as that of the Earl 
 of Northumberland ; and he had be- 
 sides an advantage with the King, he 
 was one of the most accomplished scho- 
 lars of his age. Learning in any man 
 had James's affection ; in a nobleman it 
 was peculiarly prized by the king. This 
 Lord Henry knew, and crouching much 
 beneath the dignity of his ancestors, 
 either with the intention of serving him- 
 self or involving Cecil, who confided 
 entirely in him, he directed the King's 
 attention from the letter of Raleigh to
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 87 
 
 the Lord Cobham, and the Earl of 
 Northumberland. 
 
 " May I ask in humble suit," said 
 the Lord Henry Howard, " what 
 j)ledge my Sire holds of Northumber- 
 land's allegiance ? — If the leiger Ambas- 
 sador speak truly, all must be corrobo- 
 rated that Cecil feared. — Your Majesty 
 knows your Secretary would give 
 Northumberland no audience, in his 
 advices, relating to your jMajesty's arri- 
 val in England, because he was either 
 idle in conversation, dangerous in his 
 acquaintance, or bent to no particular 
 ends.'' 
 
 The King stared, as Howard poured 
 into his ears the poison prepared by 
 Cecil, and at length he said, " why, 
 Harry Howard, this all agreeth with 
 the ranting protestations of Northum- 
 berland, who in all places vapoured, as 
 I am told by Robin Carey, he would 
 bring me in by the sword, — But I think
 
 88 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 he stopped their mouths that desired, 
 in regard to the known feud between 
 the nations, I might be obliged to arti- 
 cles, for I'm no that ignorant of the 
 complots afore my arrival." 
 
 " The man is beloved by none," said 
 Howard, '^ followed by none, trusted by 
 no one nobleman or gentleman of quality 
 within the land beside his faction, no 
 not by the gentlemen or peasants of his 
 own country, in respect of his vexation 
 and sport : and the Queen did shortly 
 before her death, say, that Raleigh had 
 made him as odious as himself, beca^use 
 he would be singular ; and such, con- 
 tinued her Majesty, were not to be 
 trusted by princes of sound policy. 
 There is no secret which he revealeth 
 not to all his own men, which Cecil 
 would have your Majesty to know, as 
 from me, lest he should hold Cecil as 
 an accuser of a man that reposeth trust ; 
 though the cause thereof be not an elec-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 89 
 
 tion of worth, as he says, but provision 
 for security." 
 
 But at this instant, the discourse of the 
 courtier was interrupted by the approach 
 of the Marquis Beaumont, accompanied 
 by an exceedingly elegant and fashion- 
 ably dressed young gentleman. The 
 King advanced a step to meet, as it 
 were, the Ambassador, who made his 
 obeisance as an all accomplished gentle- 
 man ; and announced to the Sovereign, 
 with what prompt obedience he had ful- 
 filled his royal commands. Then turn- 
 ing, he took James Hay by the hand, 
 and begged permission to introduce him 
 to his King, as a faithful and dutiful 
 subject. — The King gazed on the young 
 man for the space of half a minute, 
 during which time he took several sur- 
 veys of his person, glancing alternately 
 in the face of Beaumont, and Lord 
 Henry Howard. — The King's scrutiny 
 was as brief as our description, and his
 
 90 3BLICHTED ambition; OR, 
 
 open declaration, that, " he and his 
 family, and the English nation were 
 indebted to those who had circumvented 
 the traitors," caught the ear of Lord 
 Henry Howard ; who, astonished at this 
 speech, awaited in breathless silence 
 what was to follow. But in this he was 
 disappointed^ for his Majesty, bidding 
 James Hay attend him, walked into an 
 inner apartment, leaving de Beaumont 
 and Lord Henry Howard to finish a de- 
 bate into which he led them. 
 
 Lord Henry Howard felt umbrage 
 that a young man and a stranger should 
 attract the King's attention so suddenly 
 and so powerfully, and he begged to 
 know from the Marquis, who that gay 
 cavaliero was ? De Beaumont soon 
 informed his Lordship, and the latter 
 felt not a little piqued when he saw 
 King James return, leaning upon the 
 arm of young Hay. Determined, how- 
 ever, to be even with the King, he^
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 91 
 
 availed himself of a fair dame's salutation 
 of her fan, and withdrew from the 
 focus of royalty, to which all eyes were 
 directed. 
 
 The king was not insensible that he 
 had been the cause of the English 
 nobleman's chagrin, but he resolved to 
 make amends for it, and with that 
 design he advanced towards Lord Tho- 
 mas Howard, with whom he entered 
 into close conference ; and forth- 
 with expressed the great obligations 
 he was under to those noblemen and 
 gentlemen who had discovered the plot 
 of the conspirators ; for it was an in- 
 gredient in his political beverage to 
 make it the more palatable to the English 
 nobility, that no words could express 
 his Majesty's sense of obligation to his 
 courtiers, while to the whole nation he 
 could descant boldly, and without any 
 such allusion, upon the royal preroga-
 
 92 
 
 live, and the duty of Parliament, being 
 the '^ supply of money" for bis pleasures, 
 more than the redress of the people's 
 wrongs. 
 
 Lord Thomas Howard had got his 
 clue from his relative Lord Henry, and 
 without any ceremony he also admin- 
 istered what yet remained of the draught 
 which Cecil had prepared for the de- 
 struction of the Earl of Northumber- 
 land. — " There is no secret," said Lord 
 Thomas, ^' which Northumberland re- 
 vealeth not to all his own men.— It is 
 far from me or Cecil to restrain the dis- 
 position of King James by advice from 
 givang good assurance unto the great ones 
 of their first approach, and to the meaner 
 sort by messuages; but ibi ponat ohicem^ 
 comparing the danger with the debility, 
 the likelihood of discovery with the 
 poverty of advertisement." 
 
 ^^ Good lord ! Thomas/' exclaimed the
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMEUSET. 93 
 
 King ; " what every body says must be 
 true — T would as soon trust a black-a- 
 moor, and be tormented in the bowels 
 of my own estate with musselmen and 
 heathens, as by the cockatrices hatched 
 in Durham House." 
 
 "^ If your jMajesty hold in this temper 
 you win ground," added Lord Thomas ; 
 '^ for I protest to God, nothing vexeth 
 Cecil so much as trust imparted above 
 merit to men that are miscreet and in- 
 discreet ; weakening the wall sometimes 
 more in a day, by mining under-ground, 
 among his fellow pioneers, by giddiness, 
 than we can devise to repair in a year 
 by discretion." 
 
 " Hear me, Thomas," said the King ; 
 '^ Northumberland hath been admitted 
 to our presence, and we cannot dismiss 
 him without good and sufficient cause ; 
 albeit, all you say is cause enough, yet 
 we will not trust him, and it must be for 
 Cecil and you, and the Lord Henry, and
 
 94 
 
 that wise chield Herbert, and Lake, 
 and Sackville, and Popham, to divine 
 whether I must rump the Earl of Nor- 
 thumberland, and let him take pot's 
 luck with the Lords Grey and Cob- 
 ham, and the nautical knight Sir Walter 
 Raleigh.'' 
 
 This proposition posed Lord Thomas, 
 who was very agreeably relieved from 
 venturing an opinion, by the approach 
 of Philip Herbert, who was now a great 
 favourite with the King, because he 
 possessed comeliness of person and inde- 
 fatigable zeal in hunting. One won- 
 ders at this day, how a prince, a learned 
 man too, could suffer such a fellow as 
 Philip Herbert about his person. But 
 there is no accounting for the taste 
 of King James in the choice of favour- 
 ites. Herbert's character was that of 
 Squire Western, choleric, boisterous, 
 illiterate, selfish, absurd, and cowardly. 
 He was now master of the horse, and
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMEKSET. 95 
 
 therefore entitled to a free table in the 
 royal household. In all places, and on 
 all occasions, Herbert tried to be with 
 the King*. 
 
 He also, at this moment, came to 
 " graiulate the Lord's anointed on the 
 discovery of the hell-fire crew and their 
 damnable job," — for in such style did 
 the rude favourite greet his royal mas- 
 ter's ears. 
 
 James gently repulsed him, but Her- 
 bert knew not what the grace of man- 
 ners was, and added, '" I would make 
 hawk's meat of them, young and old. 
 They are in your clutches, like a par- 
 tridge in the falcon's varvels; what 
 would the falcon do when he had her 
 trussed ? — surely plume on her, and at 
 last wring off her head." — So saying, 
 he rudely left the King to make the ap- 
 plication ; and James, distracted by the 
 various tales which had that day reached 
 his ear, thought there was some truth in 
 the sportsman's figure.
 
 96 
 
 The departure of Herbert afforded 
 room for two new spokesmen to address^ 
 King James ; these were Sir Robert 
 Cary^ and Sir Robert Naimton. The 
 former was endeared to James as the 
 bearer of the news of his accession to the 
 Throne of England ; and the manner in 
 which Cary accomplished this mission 
 was equally agreeable to the King and 
 fortunate to himself; but he had haunted 
 the rooms of the dying Queen with an 
 interested and cold blooded anxiety, in 
 order to obtain and carry the news of 
 her decease to her successor. This was 
 the more unofentlemanlv, because his 
 father^ Henry Lord Hounsdon, was re- 
 lated to Queen Elizabeth, by the mother's 
 side. Of this relation, young Cary 
 cared not one straw ,• the moment the 
 Queen breathed her last, he escaped out 
 of Court by the interest of his brother 
 George, the gates having been shut by 
 order of the Privy Council, and he
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 97 
 
 reached Edinburgh in three days, not- 
 withstanding a fall from his horse. — 
 At Edinburgh he found the King in 
 Holyrood Palace, and demanding ad- 
 mittance he produced as his creden- 
 tials, "a blue ring from a fair lady." 
 
 The King looked upon it, without 
 exhibiting the slightest vacillation, and 
 replied, " It is enough, I know by this 
 you are a true messenger." — Then pro- 
 mising him his protection, the Scot's 
 King dismissed the young southron for 
 the night. And James was as good as 
 his word ; he took every opportunity of 
 testifying his affection for Gary, of whose 
 precipitate departure the Privy Coun- 
 cillors complained loudly. 
 
 The King discoursed for a short space 
 with Gary and Naunton ; and then 
 turned round to say a pleasant thing to 
 Sir Edward Sackville and the Lord 
 Bruce. From these James moved round 
 to discourse with the Lord Sanquhar, a 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 98 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 countryrnan of his own, whose courage, 
 talents, and accomplishments, made him 
 at once the grace and ornament of po- 
 lished society. 
 
 While the King discoursed with his 
 lords, baronets, and gentlemen, the 
 Queen was bestowing her royal favours 
 and smiles in an adjacent apartment on 
 the company that flocked round her 
 Majesty.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 99 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ob ! how thou hast with jealousy infected 
 The sweetness of affiance ! Shew men dutiful \ 
 Why sO didst thou : Or seem they grave and 
 
 learned ? 
 Wiiy so didst thou : Come they of noble family? 
 Why so didst thou : Or arc they spare in diet.. 
 Free from gross passion, or of mirth or anger. 
 Constant in spirit, not swening with the blood ; 
 Garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment. 
 Not working with the eye without the ear, 
 And but in purged judgment trusting neither' 
 Such and 50 finely bolted didst thou seem. 
 
 THE LIFE OF HENRY \'. 
 
 Queen Anne was at this period an 
 important personage, and she felt her- 
 self encumbered with the state and pa- 
 geantry of the late sovereign princess ; 
 but th^ poverty of her husband ill af- 
 F 2
 
 100 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 forded her the means of gratifying her 
 extravagant desires. James had been 
 disappointed, thwarted, in fact, by the 
 intrigues of Elizabeth, and the princess 
 he set his heart on was, by her father, 
 the King of Denmark, given away to 
 the Duke of Brunswick ; yet Anne, the 
 younger, still remained, and to her the 
 royal addresses were paid. The English 
 Queen had tempted James with the 
 Princess Catherine of Bourbon, sister 
 of Henry IV., but in vain, for he was 
 constant to his " ain kind dearie, O.'' 
 Elizabeth engaged all the Scottish 
 council to oppose the match, but in this, 
 too, she was unsuccessful ; for James, 
 with astonishing presence of mind and 
 contrivance, found means to incite the 
 populace of Edinburgh to rise and 
 threaten destruction to the cabinet mi- 
 nisters if they did not send for the 
 Princess Anne. This " sedition" pre- 
 vailed, and it was 'honoured with the
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 101 
 
 name of " loyalty" afterwards. The 
 Earl Marischal sailed with a fleet of 
 ships of war to convoy the red-haired 
 Dane to Scotia; but a storm having 
 driven her into a Norwegian port, 
 James^ with a degree of gallantry rarely 
 paralleled, sprung into a vessel, and, 
 setting storms and all the powers of the 
 air at defiance, crossed the German 
 Ocean, completed his marriage, and 
 spent his winter on the Baltic shore in 
 convivial amusement, the court of Den- 
 mark munificently supplying his ex- 
 pences. 
 
 The character of Queen Anne began 
 to show itself at her coronation. A 
 presbyterian clergyman officiated, in- 
 stead of a bishop, but the ceremony had 
 nearly been stopped by a dispute be- 
 tween the King and Bruce the minister, 
 concerning *^ unction ;" it was at length 
 agreed, however, not to be a mere Jew- 
 ish rite, and Anne was crowned in the
 
 102 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 Abbey Church of Holyrood House. 
 The poverty of James had been greatly 
 exposed at the baptism of his eldest 
 son, Prince Henry ; all the princes of 
 Europe, except Henry IV. (who owned 
 himself too poor,) sent magnificent pre- 
 sents to the mother and infant, but the 
 gifts of Elizabeth, presented by the Earl 
 of Sussex, surpassed all the others, ba- 
 ting those of the Dutch. Elizabeth sent 
 '^ a faire cupboard of silver, over gilt, 
 and cunningly wrought, and some cups 
 of massy gold ;" the Dutchers sent " twa 
 cups o' massy gold, and a parchment 
 binding themselves to pay five thousand 
 pounds yearly to the Prince.'' Queen 
 Anne loved expensive amusements as 
 much as her husband enjoyed them, and 
 the perpetual gratification of their taste, 
 in this respect, soon melted down Eli- 
 zabeth's gifts in the same crucible with 
 those of the Dutch, the King of Den^ 
 mark, and the Emperor,
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 103 
 
 One of the most assiduous in the 
 group that this evening surrounded 
 Queen Anne, was the Lord Henry 
 Howard, who had address enough to 
 play on that chord, with which every 
 nerve of her Majesty was in tune. 
 Scotland she had found poor and dis- 
 tressed^ at all events her husband had 
 been long a pensioner on the bounty of 
 Elizabeth ; and now Queen Anne was 
 the first woman in that land, from 
 whence King James had received much 
 of that money which enabled them to 
 riot in the jollities of their northern 
 court. It is not then marvellous that 
 ahe should entertain a strong prejudice 
 against the lieges from the northern 
 deserts, who emigrated with James to 
 his newly acquired English Goshen, 
 
 " Saw you ever any thing like the 
 frequent and daily resort of these per- 
 sons," said the Queen, '^ both men and 
 women of base sort and condition, and
 
 104 BLIGHTED AMBITION* ; OR, 
 
 without any certain trade, calling or 
 dependence, going and coming to court, 
 by sea and land ?" 
 
 '*' They are but idle rascals and poor 
 miserable bodies,'' said the Lord Henry 
 Howard, "' yet your Majesty kens there 
 are mony scandalous imputations given 
 out against them, as if there were no 
 persons of rank, comeliness nor credit 
 within the same ; but then they are 
 suitors." 
 
 " A plague on all your suitors, my 
 sweet Lord, coming hither to demand 
 their paltry debts frae his Majesty,'* said 
 the Queen. 
 
 '^ If I were the King, Madam, rejoined 
 Lord Henry,-' if these loons took not 
 growing timber for their monies, I 
 would hang the half of them on the said 
 trees." 
 
 *^ A good thought, my Lord," ex- 
 claimed the Queen, " and it agrees with
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 105 
 
 the ancient port of yoiiv family. —But 
 can the King sell the woods and forests." 
 
 " Madam, my Lord the King might 
 extract gold out of the very faults of 
 the English. — They denied Elizal>eth 
 nothing. Why should your Majesties 
 net be equally well provided for? Were 
 I the Lord Keeper Egerton^ or Sir 
 Thomai; Sackville, the Lord High Trea- 
 surer, I should see whether I could not 
 invent impositions, monopolies, aids, 
 privy-seals, concealments, and preter- 
 mitted customs, besides forfeitures upon 
 penal statutes.*' 
 
 •• Saiicfa Maria J" exclaimed Anne, 
 *• how you amaze me Lord Harry. — Has 
 the King power to do all that ?*■ 
 
 *•' Has he the will ?-' asked Howard. 
 ** and 1 warrant the Star Chamber find 
 him power." 
 
 " My Lord, your advice savoureth 
 well," added the Queen, "and Fll con- 
 i^ider your counsels with the King."
 
 106 
 
 " Hear the reasons of others pleaded^ 
 of the Privy Councillors/' said Howard^ 
 *' y^t your Majesty will not be so impli- 
 citly led by their judgments as to neg- 
 lect a greater of your own. But here 
 comes one who will never drown him- 
 self to save another." — And as Lord 
 Henry spoke this, the Earl of Northum- 
 berland approached to pay his respects to 
 the Queen. — That duty done, the noble 
 Earl walked away, observing to himself 
 that *^ the memory of the money he 
 supplied James with in Scotland, had 
 quite vanished upon the first apparition 
 of the Exchequer of Westminster." 
 
 The Queen had not as yet got her 
 clue with respect to Northumberland; 
 if she had, she made no use of it, but 
 remarked to Lord Henry that the for- 
 tune he was spending upon Audley End, 
 would purchase him reproof from en- 
 vious contemporaries, and censure fi'om 
 self-conceited posterity."
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOxMERSET. 107 
 
 At this moment Herbert advanced to 
 the Queen, blustering aloud, '^ sweet 
 Princess, I hope you have reasoned the 
 Lord Harry out of his conceit, that 
 marriage is a clog fastened to the neck 
 of liberty, by the juggling hand of 
 policy ?" 
 
 '^ No, indeed," replied the Queen,* 
 smiling, " I was reasoning with Howard 
 on another topic. What think you, 
 Herbert, of the Lord Harry changing 
 his opinion on the mass for the Earldom 
 of Northampton ?" 
 
 '' Think, think !" exclaimed Herbert, 
 " that if he gets nothing else by going 
 from one shop to another, he shall gain 
 experience. — But I think if he adds 
 thereto the Earldom of Northampton, 
 he will, without untrussing, have only 
 to pitch the bar twice more to be even 
 with his late brother Norfolk." 
 
 " A truce to this," said Queen Anne, 
 " here comes the Lady Suffolk, and with
 
 108 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OK, 
 
 her the Lord Keeper, Egerton. — My 
 Lord Keeper, do you know that the Lord 
 Henry, there, has found out that his 
 questions in school divinity dull the 
 edge of faith, and therefore, he is going 
 to leave them to the schoolmen?" 
 
 " Your Majesty," interrupted Lord 
 Henry, hastily, '' your Majesty takes me 
 at unawares." 
 
 The Lord Keeper, to whom the Queen 
 had addressed herself, gazed on Howard, 
 >^'ho was immediately rallied by his 
 niece, the Countess of Suffolk ; and at 
 this instant Anne could have wished all 
 parties silent, for Sir Edward Sackville 
 was coming up to her Majesty's chair 
 with the lovely Lady Bruce leaning on 
 his arm ; the conversation immediately 
 took another turn, and Lord Henry 
 Howard embraced the opportunity af- 
 forded him of a crowded group to walk 
 into another apartment, where he rumi- 
 nated first on what had passed between -
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 109 
 
 hinfi and the King, next on the dialogue 
 maintained by her Majesty; but neither 
 the reflections he had made on Northum- 
 berland's character, nor the pernicious 
 counsel he had tendered respecting the 
 various ways in which the needy monarch 
 might fleece the English nation, gave 
 him one moment's pain ; for, being a 
 bachelor and a student, he Avas the less 
 solicitous to advance himself by court 
 flattery, or his foi^tune, which wasample^ 
 by state employment.— He desired, how- 
 ever, to serve his nephew Lord Thomas 
 Howard, so recently created Earl of 
 Suffolk; and for him he anxiously strove 
 to procure the place of Lord High Trea- 
 surer. 
 
 It was now, however, approaching the 
 hour when the masque was to commence, 
 and the company forthwith proceeded to 
 make their preparations and to dress 
 for that fascinating and splendid enter- 
 tainment. Among the masques com-
 
 110 BLIGHTED AMBITION 
 
 posed by Ben Jonson^ for the entertain- 
 ment of the court of King James, the 
 one exhibited this evening was the most 
 ingenious and picturesque. 
 
 The King and Queen, with the 
 Princes of Wales and Lorrain, and the 
 nobility being entered into the gallery, 
 there was seen nothing but a traverse of 
 white across the room. This was sud- 
 denly drawn, discovering a gloomy 
 obscure place, hung all with black silks, 
 and in it only one light, which the 
 genius of the house held, sadly attired,., 
 his cornucopia ready to fall out of his 
 hand, his garland drooping on his head, 
 his eyes fixed on the ground, when out 
 of his pensive posture, after some little 
 pause, he broke silence and began to 
 announce the surrender of Theobalds to 
 King James : 
 
 Let not your glories darken, to behold 
 The place and me, her genius here, so sad :
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. Ill 
 
 Who, by bold rumour, have been lately told, 
 That I must change the loved Lord I had. 
 
 And he, now, in the twilight of sore age, 
 Begin to seek a habitation new : 
 
 And all bis fortunes and himself engage 
 Unto a sect, his fathers never knew : 
 
 And I, uncertain what I must endure, 
 
 Since all the ends of destiny are obscure. 
 
 Mercuiy now appeared to the despon- 
 ding genius, accompanied by a boy, re- 
 presenting Good Event, together with 
 the Fatal Sisters, who announced to him 
 
 When underneath the roof is seen 
 
 The greatest King, the fairest Queen, 
 
 With princes, an unmatched pair. 
 
 One, hope of all the earth, their heir ; 
 
 The other of Lorrain, 
 
 Their blood, and sprung from Charlemagne ; 
 
 Where all these glories jointly shine, 
 
 And till thee with a heat divine. 
 
 And these reflected do beget 
 
 A splendid sun, shall never set, 
 
 But here shine fixed, to affright 
 
 All after hopes of following night. .r!-)
 
 112 BLIGHTED AMBITION 
 
 Then, Genius, is thy period come, 
 
 I'o cliange thy Lord ; thus fates do doom. 
 
 Upon which the involved Genius broke 
 forth in the following rapture. 
 
 Moum'd I before ? Could I commit a sin 
 
 So much 'gainst kind or knowledge, to protrait 
 A joy, to which I should have ravish'd been, 
 
 And never shall be happy, till I act ? 
 V^ouchsafe fair Queen, my patron's zeal in me ; 
 
 Who fly with fervour, as my fate command-s. 
 To yield these keys : and wish that you could 9*^0 , 
 
 My heart as open to you as my hands. 
 There might you read my faith, my thoughts. — But 
 oh! 
 
 My joys like waves each other overcome ! 
 And gladness drowns where it begins to flow, 
 
 Some greater powers speak out for mine are diunb. 
 
 And as the last verse was spoken, the 
 place was filled with rare and choice 
 music, to which was heard the following 
 song, delivered by an excellent voice, 
 and the burden maintained by the whole 
 choir.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 113 
 
 SONG. 
 
 Oh blessed change I 
 And not less glad than strange ! 
 Where we, that lose, have won 
 And for a beam, enjoy a sun, 
 
 CHORUS, 
 
 So little sparks become great fires, 
 And high rewards crown low desires. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 Was ever bliss 
 
 More full or clear than this ! 
 
 The present month of May 
 
 Ne'er looked so fresh as doth this day. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 So gentle winds breed happy springs. 
 And duty thrives by breath of Kings. 
 
 Thus was Theobalds surrendered by 
 Cecil to his Master King James. " But 
 your Majesty," said Cecil, as the cere- 
 mony closed, " will enlarge the park
 
 114 
 
 with such parcels of lands as are neigh- 
 bouring^ wall it, and store it with red 
 deer." 
 
 " Right, Robin," replied James, " and 
 I will glory in this work as much as my 
 predecessors in the conquest of France." 
 
 " And I," said Cecil aside, " I shall 
 now have my revenge on those yeomen 
 who would not sell me, the son of 
 Lord Burleigh, their acres of land. — Oh! 
 your Majesty, it will be enough for me 
 to build my nest at Hatfield, while your 
 Highness enjoys Theobalds for fifty 
 years purchase."
 
 THE RISE ANP FALL OF SOMERSET. 115; 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " This conspiracy of Sir ^y alter Raleigh is va- 
 riously represented by the historians of that time, 
 but acknowledged by all of them to have been a 
 riddle of state." bishop kennett 
 
 "In the beginning of the King's reign, this gentle- 
 man, with others, was arraigned and condemned for 
 treason ; 'twas a dark kind of treason, and the veil 
 is still upon it. The King had ground enough to 
 shew mercy, which some of that condemned party 
 obtained." rushworth's his. coll. ed, 1659. 
 
 To frustrate the designs of the con- 
 spirators, and bring them to condign 
 punishment, Lake proceeded in the ex- 
 ecution of his duty with all reasonable 
 zeal. He caused Copley to be first ap- 
 prehended, whom Lawrency pointed at 
 ^g m active hand in devising mischief,
 
 116 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 From Copley the joint Secretary of 
 State learned of the project to surprise 
 the King's person, at least so Mr. Se- 
 cretary reported. The actors in this 
 capture were to be headed by the Lord 
 Grey ; and it was already known, as we 
 have mentioned, that he and Raleigh 
 had met repeatedly at Lord Cobham's. 
 Cecil, being informed of all these things, 
 judged it advisable, therefore, to recom- 
 mend the King to remove to Windsor, 
 for the greater security of his Majesty's 
 sacred person, and thither Raleigh was 
 invited also. Believing no harm was 
 intended him, he went there ; and Mr. 
 Secretary sent him not thence till he 
 was put upon his trial. The following 
 unfortunate persons were, however, first 
 examined and disposed of according to 
 their respective demerits; viz. 
 
 George Brooke, who acknowledged, 
 whether from fear or guilt, that the ac- 
 cusation of Lawrency was founded in
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. IIT 
 
 fact, but he spoke little more than his 
 own confession led him, at other times, 
 to excuse or qualify. Once, indeed, 
 he alluded to a letter which he said 
 the King had written to him, wherein 
 he bad authority and liberty to deal 
 in the sounding out of those prac- 
 tices of which the whole party were 
 charged ; but the King being, by 
 some of the lords commissioners, ques- 
 tioned withal on that point, required 
 this letter to be produced, denying that 
 he wrote it ; but neither at any time 
 before, or at his arraignment, could 
 Master Brooke shew this letter. 
 
 Sir Griffin Markham had been mis- 
 led, he said, by Watson, who assured 
 him that the King, before his corona- 
 tion, was not an actual, but a political 
 king ; therefore, if it were treason to 
 believe so, he was guilty ; yet would he 
 acknowledge that Watson had proposed 
 taking the King's person by surprise.
 
 118 
 
 but without the effusion of blood. If 
 that were criminal, he knew not, but he 
 desired to avoid the imputation of trai- 
 tor for his house and posterity, protest- 
 ing how careless he was of his own life, 
 and desiring their lordships to be his 
 intercessors, if he were to be sacrificed, 
 that he might die under the axe, and 
 not by the halter. 
 
 Sir Edward Parham was also, by that 
 villain Watson, dealt withal, after he 
 had tendered the oath to him, unto this 
 purpose ; — that he understood the Lord 
 Grey meant with forces to set upon the 
 King, and to surprise him, that against 
 that time, whether he would not draw 
 his sword against the Lord Grey with 
 the King's servants and friends ? And, 
 if the King's servants were discomfited, 
 whether, with the rest of the Catholics, 
 he would not encounter the Lord Grey, 
 and, if he could, bring him to the tovver 
 for the King's relief and the advance-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 119 
 
 merit of the Catholic religion ? But in 
 Sir Edward Parharn's case there were 
 some favourable circumstances ; it being 
 his purpose to rescue the King from the 
 hands of the Lord Grey, had the seizure 
 taken place. 
 
 Master Brooksby declared he was 
 drawn in merely by Watson to take the 
 oath we have mentioned, for some of 
 the particulars, as the bringing the King 
 to the tower for the advancement of 
 religion. 
 
 Father Clark, a priest, a nimble- 
 tongued fellow, of good speech, more 
 honest in the carriage of the business, and 
 of an excellent wit and memory, boldly 
 and in well beseeming terms uttering 
 his mind, declared he knew of no trea- 
 son in the affair, but if he must be sacri- 
 ficed to state policy, he was not unwill- 
 ing to die, yet he desired to avoid the 
 imputation of traitor. 
 
 Father Watson, another priest, and
 
 120 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 the unfortunate wretch who planned 
 this business, spake very absurdly and 
 deceivingly, without grace and utter- 
 ance, or good delivery ; all which, on a 
 man's trial for treason, are essential. 
 These deficiencies, added to his former 
 villainy, made him the more odious and 
 contemptible to the commissioners ; and 
 they adjudged him unworthy of pity 
 from them, or mercy from the King, 
 They considered Copley a man of a 
 whining speech, but gifted with a shrewd 
 invention, and a stout resolution to ad- 
 mit the charge of traitor : him, there- 
 fore, on his own confession, they left to 
 the execution of the law. 
 
 All these confessions enabled the com- 
 missioners to frame certain general ac- 
 cusations against the pretended delin- 
 quents, who were accordingly tried at 
 Winchester for attempting to set the 
 crown on the Lady Arabella's head, and 
 to seize the King ; for devising a tole-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 121 
 
 ration in religion, whereby the loyalty 
 of the state might become addled, by a 
 diversity of opinion among her subjects 
 on their duty to mother church ; for 
 seeking to procure aid from foreign 
 princes, whereby the religion of those 
 princes might be propagated in Britain, 
 to the great scandal of the Bishops ; 
 and, finally, for conspiring to turn the 
 Ins out, and to bring the Outs in at 
 court, whereby all placemen and pen- 
 sioners, and office-bearers would be 
 greatly injured, and a few resolute men 
 benefited. Of these, the first article is 
 treason, says Sir Hawless, a solicitor- 
 general (Temp. Will. 3); what crimes 
 the rest are is doubtful : and therefore 
 we have reported them in language par- 
 taking of their equivocal essence. 
 
 And now turn we to the Lords Grey 
 and Cobham. " Brooke," said Secretary 
 Cecil, " has given notice to Lord Cob- 
 ham of the surprising treason; but with 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 122 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 as much sparingness of a brother as 
 he might ; does my Lord Cobham sub- 
 scribe to this, or stand ujDon his justifi- 
 cation and his quality ?" 
 
 Cobham, in bitter terms^ now finding- 
 he was caught in Cecil's clutches, accused 
 his brother George Brooke of deceit, 
 villainy, and treason ; — but the Secretary 
 struck him dumb, by asking him " upon 
 his honour, as a peer, whether he had 
 not used these speeches, ' that it would 
 never be well, till the King and his 
 cubs were taken away V Being asked 
 further, whether he knew one Law- 
 rency ? he answered affirmatively, and 
 beirjg further required to declare, *^ if he 
 had not treated with Count Aremberg 
 for six hundred thousand crowns, to the 
 intent, to advance the Lady Arabella 
 to this crown ?" He confessed that " he 
 had a passport to go into Spain, but 
 nothing should be done until he had 
 spoken with Sir Walter Raleigh, for
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 123 
 
 distribution of the money, among them 
 who were discontented in England." 
 
 This poor unfortunate nobleman, now 
 breathed out curses against Raleigh, 
 calling him " villain," '^ traitor," and 
 all that was bad ; — but concluded his 
 accusation, by acknowledging that, '^ he 
 was afraid of Sir Walter, lest, when 
 he should return with the Spaniard's 
 treasure, he might deliver him to the 
 King, as he had formerly done Essex to 
 Elizabeth." 
 
 Lord Grey, on the other hand, argued 
 long and speciously, that the crime 
 charged against him, was only a verbal 
 matter, and never took effect, and there- 
 fore, could be no treason ; but he had 
 it cast in his teeth, that all projects 
 where copartnery appeared, must neces- 
 sarily be discussed, super charta scribenda 
 vel viva voce ah illis loquendis. 
 
 Both these nobleman w^ere put upon 
 ^heir trial ; and the Lord Cobham took 
 G 2
 
 124 BMGHTLD AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 the advantage offered him in this pre- 
 dicament, to accuse all his friends, 
 without advancing one excuse for him- 
 self, for his own confession was deemed 
 sufficient to condemn him. His peers 
 were not long in deliberating what to 
 judge, and after sentence of condemna- 
 tion given, he begged a long while for 
 life and favour, aliedging his confession 
 as a meritorious act, which, as it would 
 set him even with Heaven, ought to 
 be of some weight with an earthly king. 
 The Lord Grey, on the other hand, 
 spake quite in another key, first to the 
 Lords, and then to the judges, and lastly 
 to the King's counsel, telling them with 
 great assurance and alacrity, of their 
 charges, his heavy enemies, and his old 
 antagonist (Cecil) ; who was mute before • 
 his face, though he spake within very un- 
 nobly against him. The peers had some 
 difficulty in coming to a decision, and 
 many of them would have dispensed
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 125 
 
 with their consciences to have shevrn 
 him favour; but at length they pro- 
 nounced against him, and demanded 
 " whether he had any thing to say, 
 why sentence of death should not be 
 passed upon him ?" 
 
 " I have nothing to say," replied 
 Lord Grey, and there he paused long, 
 *^ and yet a word of Tacitus comes in 
 my mind, Non eadem, omnibus decora ; 
 the house of the Wittons have spent 
 many lives in their princes service, and 
 Grey cannot beg his. God send the 
 King a long and prosperous reign, and 
 to your Lordships all honour." 
 
 Unfortunate nobleman! The Lord 
 Steward condemned his manner, term- 
 ing it Lucifer's pride; the judges preach- 
 ed humiliation, because he disputed with 
 them about obsolete and barbarous laws, 
 and the King's council prayed the Lord 
 that this fiery spirit might not hang
 
 126 BLIGHTED A31BITI0N 
 
 eight and forty hours indifferent betwixt 
 mercy and justice. 
 
 Though last, not leasts was brought 
 before the commissioners, the gallant 
 Raleigh. 
 
 The indictment charged him with 
 going about to deprive the King of his 
 Government; to raise sedition within 
 the realm ; to alter religion, to bring 
 in the Roman superstition, and to pro- 
 cure foreign enemies to invade the 
 kingdom. On these general accusations a 
 heap of particular points were collected, 
 to shew the jury how Sir Walter Ra- 
 leigh intended to advance the Lady 
 Arabella Stuart to the Throne of Eng- 
 land, through the power and wealth of 
 Spain, the Archduke, and the Duke 
 of Savoy ; and that after she had 
 obtained the Crown, she should promise 
 to be ruled by Brooke, Cobham, and Ra- 
 leigh, or by the Spaniard, the Arch- 
 duke, and the Duke of Savoy, in gene-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 127 
 
 ral, and in the contracting of her mar- 
 riage in particular. 
 
 To the indictment, Raleigh pleaded 
 not guilty; of the jury he excepted 
 none, believing them to be all christians, 
 and honest gentlemen ; but when he 
 begged to be allowed " to answer to the 
 points particularly as they were deli- 
 vered," by Sir Edward Coke, the 
 attorney-general, Popham^ the Chief 
 Justice replied, ^' after the King's 
 Learned Counsel have delivered all the 
 evidence. Sir Walter, you may answer 
 particularly to what you will." 
 
 Heale, the King's Serjeant, opened 
 the pleadings, by stating the particulars 
 of the indictment, and was followed 
 by the Attorney-General, Sir Edward 
 Coke, who endeavoured to make the 
 jury understand the treason in the 
 main. 
 
 '- The treason of the bye consisteth," 
 said this learned lawyer, " in these
 
 128 BLIGHTED AMBITION OR, 
 
 points ; first, that the Lord Grey/Brooke, 
 Markham, and the rest, intended by 
 force, and in the night, to surprise the 
 King's Court, which was a rebellion in 
 the heart of the realm, yea, in the 
 heart of the heart, in the Court. They 
 intended to take him that is Sovereign, 
 to make him subject to their power, 
 purposing to open the doors with mus- 
 kets and cavaliers, and to take also the 
 prince and council ; then, under the 
 King's authority, to carry the King to 
 the Tower, and to make a stall of the 
 Admiral. When they had the King 
 there, to extort three things from him ; 
 first, a pardon of all their treasons; 
 secondly, a toleration of the Roman 
 superstitions ; which their eyes shall 
 sooner fall out, than they shall ever see; 
 for the King hath spoken these words 
 in the hearing of many — < I will lose 
 the crown and my life, before ever I 
 will alter religion;' and, thirdly, ta
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 129 
 
 remove counsellors. In the room of the 
 Lord Chancellor, they would have placed 
 one Watson, a priest, absurd in huma- 
 nity, and ignorant in divinity. Brooke, 
 of whom I shall speak nothing, Lord 
 Treasurer, the great Secretary must be 
 Markham, oculus patri(B. A hole must 
 be made in my Lord Chief Justice's coat. 
 Grey must be Earl Marshal, and Mas- 
 ter of the Horse, because he would have 
 a table in the court ; marry, he would 
 advance the Earl of Worcester to a 
 higher place. All this cannot be done 
 without a multitude ; therefore, Watson, 
 the priest, tells a resolute man, that the 
 King was in danger of Puritans and 
 Jesuits ; so to bring him blindfold into 
 the action, saying, that the King is 
 no King, till he be crowned, therefore, 
 every man might right his own wrongs. 
 But to whom do you bear malice, to 
 the children ?" 
 
 " To whom speak you this ?" de 
 G 3
 
 130 BLIGHTED ambition; OR^ 
 
 manded Sir Walter Raleigh, " you tell 
 me news I never heard of.*' 
 
 " Oh, sir, do I ?" asked the Attorney- 
 General, *^ I will prove you the most 
 notorious traitor that ever came to the 
 bar. After you have taken away the 
 King, you would alter religion ; as you, 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, have followed them 
 of the hye in imitation ; for I will charge 
 you with the words." 
 
 " Your w^ords cannot condemn me," 
 said Raleigh ; " my innocency is my 
 defence. Prove one of these things 
 wherewith you have charged me, and I 
 will confess the whole indictment, and 
 that I am the horriblest traitor that ever 
 lived, and worthy to be crucified with 
 a thousand, thousand torments." 
 
 " Nay, I will prove all," retorted 
 Coke ; " thou art a monster ; thou hast 
 an English face, but a Spanish heart. 
 Now you must have money* Aremberg 
 was no sooner in England, (I charge
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 131 
 
 thee Raleigh,) but thou incited Cob- 
 ham to go unto him, and to deal with 
 him for money, to bestow on discon- 
 tented persons, to raise rebellion in the 
 kingdom." 
 
 " Let me answer for myself,'' said 
 Raleigh. 
 
 " Thou shalt not," said Coke angrily. 
 
 " It concerneth my life," added Ra- 
 leigh. 
 
 " Oh ! do I touch you ?" ejaculated 
 Coke, in bitter terms of reproach. 
 
 " When you have done with this ge- 
 neral charge, Mr. Attorney," said Cecil, 
 '^ do you not mean to let Sir Walter 
 Raleigh answer every particular ?" 
 
 " Yes, when we deliver the proofs to 
 be read," answered the aspiring barris- 
 ter. — Then, addressing Raleigh, he said, 
 " I think you meant to make Arabella 
 a titular Queen, of whose title I will 
 speak nothing ; but sure, you meant to
 
 132 BLIGHTED ambition; OR^ 
 
 make her a stall. Ah! good lady, yon 
 could mean her no good." 
 
 ^' You tell me news^ Mr. Attorney,"^ 
 said Sir Walter gravely. 
 
 " Oh ! sir," retorted the other laugh- 
 ingly, " I am the more large, because 1 
 know with whom I deal ; for we have 
 to deal to day with a man of wit." 
 
 " Did I ever speak with this lady ?" 
 demanded Raleigh. 
 
 ^^ I will track you out before I have 
 done," was the reply of Coke. " Eng- 
 lishmen will not be led by persuasion of 
 words, but they must have books to per- 
 suade." 
 
 " The book was written by a man of 
 your profession, Mr. Attorney," said 
 Raleigh. 
 
 *' I would not have you impatient," 
 replied the Attorney-General. 
 
 " Methinks you fall out with your- 
 self; I say nothing," said Raleigh coolly.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 133 
 
 " By this book you would persuade 
 men that he is not the lawful King/' re- 
 torted Coke. " Now let us consider 
 some circumstances. My Lords, you 
 know my Lord Cobham (for whom we 
 all lament and rejoice ; lament in that 
 his house, which hath stood so long un- 
 spotted, is now ruinated ; rejoice, in th*at 
 his treasons are revealed ;) he is neither 
 politician nor sword man; Raleigh is 
 both, united in the cause with him, and 
 therefore, the cause of his destruction. He 
 must talk with none but Cobham, be- 
 cause, saith he, one witness can never 
 condemn me. Further, you sent to him, 
 by your trusty Francis Kemish, that one 
 witness could not condemn ; and, there- 
 fore, bade his Lordship be of good cou- 
 rage. Came this out of Cobham's 
 quiver ? No ; but out of Raleigh's ma- 
 chiavelian and devilish policy." 
 
 ^^ I will wash my hands of the indict-
 
 134 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR^ 
 
 tnent, and die a true man to my King," 
 said Raleigh. 
 
 " You are the absolutest traitor that 
 ever was/' answered Coke bitterly. 
 
 ^' Your phrases will not prove," re- 
 torted Raleigh mildly. 
 
 " You, my masters of the jury," said 
 Coke, " respect not the wickedness and 
 hatred of the man ; respect his cause ; 
 if he be guilty, I know you will have 
 care of it, for the preservation of the 
 King, the continuance of the gospel, and 
 the good of us all," 
 
 " I do not hear yet," said Raleigh, 
 " that you have spoken one word against 
 me ; here is no treason of mine done. If 
 my Lord Cobham be a traitor, what is 
 that to me ?" 
 
 ^^ All that he did, was done by thy 
 instigation, thou viper ; for I know thee, 
 thou traitor !" said Coke,^ with great as- 
 
 * Shakespeare availed himself of this intemperate 
 !?tyle of the Attorney-General; in,4he person of Sir
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 135 
 
 perity, resolved to brow beat and insult 
 the prisoner, in the prospect of thwart- 
 ing him in his defence, 
 
 " It becometh not a man of quality 
 and virtue to call me such," was the mild 
 observation of the brave Raleigh ; " but 
 I take comfort in it, it is all you can 
 do." 
 
 '^ Have I angered you ?" asked Coke 
 sarcastically. 
 
 ^' I am in no case to be angry ;" re^ 
 plied Raleigh. 
 
 The lord chief justice Popham at this 
 part of the debate threw in a word of 
 advice and encouragement, saying, " Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, Mr. Attorney- General 
 speaketh out of the zeal of his duty for the 
 service of the King, and you for your 
 life, be valiant on both sides." 
 
 Toby, in " Twelfth Night." Sir Toby, as the reader 
 knows, in giving directions to Sir Andrew for his 
 challenge to Viola, says, " If thou thoust him some 
 thrice it may not be amiss."
 
 136 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 The Attorney- €reneral then proceed- 
 ed, not to call witnesses, but to read 
 Lord Cobham's confessional examina- 
 tion, charging Raleigh with plots and 
 invasions, of the particulars whereof his 
 Lordship could give no account, though 
 Raleigh and he had conferred of them. 
 
 " Let me see the accusation," said 
 Raleigh ; " this is absolutely all the evi- 
 dence that can be brought against me ; 
 poor shifts ! You, gentlemen of the jury, 
 I pray you understand this. This is 
 that which must either condemn, or give 
 me life ; which must free me, or send 
 my wife and children to beg their bread 
 about the streets. This is that must 
 prove me a notorious traitor or a true 
 subject of my king. Let me see my 
 accusations, that I may make my an- 
 swer." 
 
 " I did read it," said the clerk of the 
 court ; " and shewed you all the exami- 
 nations."
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOiMERSET. 137 
 
 Raleigh then proceeded to show the 
 jury that he could not be in league with 
 Cobham in this treason, protesting, at 
 the same time, that he never heard one 
 word about the Lady Arabella before he 
 was arrested, and ridiculed the idea of 
 the Spaniard's distributing any money 
 among the English. 
 
 The second examination of Cobham 
 was then read to the prisoner, and the 
 Lord Chief Justice observed that Cob- 
 ham, on seeing a letter written to Cecil, 
 said, " O wretch ! O traitor!" whereby 
 '' I perceived," added the judge ; " you 
 had not performed that trust he had re- 
 posed in you." 
 
 " He is a passionate man," said Ra- 
 leigh ; " he hath not spared his best 
 friends in his anger. Methinks, my 
 lords, when he accuses a man, he should 
 give some account and reason of it. If 
 I had been the plotter, would not I have 
 given Cobham some arguments whereby
 
 138 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR^ 
 
 to persuade the Spaniard and answer 
 his objections ? I knew Westmoreland 
 and Bothwell, men of other understand- 
 ing than Cobham. \vere ready to beg 
 their bread." 
 
 Sir Thomas Fowler^ one of the jury, 
 asked^ " Did Sir Walter Raleigh write 
 a letter to my Lord Cecil before he was 
 examined, concerning Cobham or not ?" 
 
 '^ Yes!" said the Attorney-General 
 Coke. 
 
 " I am in great dispuie with myself/' 
 observed Cecil, " to speak in the case of 
 this gentleman, a former dearness be- 
 tween him and me, tied so firm a knot 
 of his virtues, now broken by a discovery 
 of his imperfections. Sir Walter Ra- 
 leigh w^as staid by me at Windsor, upon 
 the first news of Copley, that the King's 
 person should be surprised by my Lord 
 Grey, and Mr. George Brooke : when I 
 found Brooke was in, I suspected Cob- 
 ham was in, then I doubted Raleigh to
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 139 
 
 be a partaker. There was a light given 
 to Aremberg, that Lawrency was ex- 
 amined ; but, that Raleigh knew that 
 Cobham was examined, is more than 
 I know." 
 
 '' If my Lord Cobham had trusted 
 me in the main" said Raleigh, " was 
 not I as fit a man to be trusted in the 
 bye r 
 
 Lord Cecil replied to this, saying, 
 '^ Raleigh did by his letters acquaint us, 
 that my Lord Cobham had sent Law- 
 rency to Aremberg, when he knew not 
 he had any dealings with him." 
 
 Lord Henry Howard remarked, '' It 
 made for you, if Lawrency had been 
 only acquainted with Cobham and not 
 with you. But you knew his whole es- 
 tate, and were acquainted with Cob- 
 ham's practice with Lawrency ; and it 
 was known to you before, that Lawren- 
 cy depended on Aremberg." 
 
 The Attorney-General then said that.
 
 140 BIIGHTED ambition; OR, 
 
 '' first, Raleigh protested against the 
 surprising treason ; and, secondly, that 
 he knew not of the matter touching 
 Arabella. I would not charge you. Sir 
 Walter, with a matter of falsehood ; you 
 say you suspected the intelligence, that 
 Cobham had with Aremberg by Law- 
 rency ?" 
 
 " I thought it had been no other in- 
 telligence," said Raleigh, " but such as 
 might be warranted." 
 
 The counsellor Coke replied, " Cob- 
 ham would not accuse you out of pas- 
 sion ; mark the manner of it : — when he 
 did see that Aremberg was touched, he 
 cried out, ^ oh ! traitor ! oh ! villain ! now 
 will I confess the whole truth.' Cobham 
 had told this at least two months before, 
 to his brother Brooke. ' You are fools, 
 you are in the bye, Raleigh, and I am 
 on the main ; we mean to take away the 
 King and his cubs f so mark the man*
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET, 141 
 
 ner and the matter ; he would not turn 
 the weapon against his own bosom, and 
 accuse himself to accuse you." 
 
 " Hath Cobham confessed that ?" de- 
 manded Raleigh. 
 
 '" This is spoken by Mr. Attorney^" 
 said the Lord Chief Justice, " to prov^e 
 that Cobham's speech came not out of 
 passion." 
 
 Raleigh then demanded — " Let it be 
 proved that Cobham hath said so." 
 
 The Attorney-General replied, saying 
 that '' Cobham's speech implied trust be- 
 tw^een him and Raleigh ; you. Sir Wal- 
 ter, say all these matters, we charge 
 you with, are circumstances. I answer 
 all this accusation in circumstance is 
 true; and my Lord Cobham's accusation 
 being testified to the Lords, is of as 
 great force as if it had been subscribed. 
 Raleigh saith, my Lords, if the accuser 
 be alive, he must be brought face to face,
 
 142 BLIGHTED ambition; OR, 
 
 to speak^ and alledges that there must 
 be two sufficient witnesses brought face 
 to face before the accused." 
 
 ^' You try me by the Spanish inquisi- 
 tion," interrupted Raleigh, " if you 
 proceed by the circumstances without 
 two witnesses." 
 
 '^ This is a treasonable speech," eja- 
 culated the Attorney Coke, looking at 
 the same time to the Lord Chief Justice 
 Popham for approval. — This is treason 
 
 — treasonable speech." But the Chief 
 
 Justice did not thereupon check the pri- 
 soner in his defence. 
 
 " Good, my Lords," replied Raleigh, 
 in no ways daunted, " let it be proved, 
 either by the laws of the land, or the 
 laws of God, that there ought not to 
 be two witnesses appointed ; yet I will 
 not stand to defend this point in law ; if 
 the King will have it so, it is no rare 
 thing for a man to be falsely accused. 
 It is commanded by the scripture Alio-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 143 
 
 cuius est Jehova Mosen, in ore duorum 
 aut trium testium, (Sfc, If Christ requireth 
 it, as it appeareth Matthew xviii ; if by 
 the Canon law, and God's word, it be 
 required, that there must be two wit- 
 nesses at the least ; bear with me if I de- 
 sire one. I would not desire to live if I 
 w^ere privy to Cobham's proceedings. I 
 have been a slave, a villain, a fool, if I 
 had endeavoured to set up Arabella 
 Stuart ; but urge your proofs." 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice Popham re- 
 plied to the prisoner, " that the statutes 
 on which he claimed two witnesses were 
 repealed, and it sufficeth now if there 
 be proofs, made either underhand, or by 
 the testimony of witnesses, or by oaths; it 
 needs not the subscription of the parties, 
 so there be the hands of credible men 
 to testify the ex^amination." 
 
 To this argument Raleigh replied, 
 " that the laws of Edward the Third 
 and Edward the Sixth might be re-
 
 144 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 pealed, but their equity was still the 
 same. Proof of the common law is by- 
 witness and jury ; let Cobham be here, 
 let him speak it : call my accusers before 
 my face, and I have done." 
 
 The learned Attorney-General told 
 the prisoner, *' he had read the letter 
 of the law, but understood it not ; here 
 was your anchor-hold and your rendez- 
 vous ; you trust to Cobham ; either 
 Cobham must accuse you, or nobody : 
 if he did, then it would not hurt you, 
 because he is but one witness ; if he 
 did not, then you are safe." 
 
 Raleigh, with much dignity^ looked 
 up and exclaimed, " if ever I read a 
 word of the law of statutes before I 
 was a prisoner in the Tower, God con- 
 found me." 
 
 " Further," resumed the Attorney- 
 general, in breathless precipitancy, — 
 *•' Further, Cobham in his examination 
 saith, nothing could be set down for the
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 145 
 
 distribution of the money to the dis- 
 contented without conference with 
 Raleigh." 
 
 ^•-All this/' retorted the prisoner, 
 " is but an accusation of Cobham's, 
 to which he never subscribed. I 
 beseech you, my lords, let Cobham be 
 sent for — charge him on his soul, on 
 his allegiance to the King ; if he affirm 
 it, I am guilty." 
 
 Cecil here spoke, saying, " The evi- 
 dence against you is the accusation of 
 my Lord Cobham ; must it not be 
 of force without his subscription? I 
 desire to be resolved by the judges, 
 whether by the law it is not a forcible 
 argument of evidence?" And in making 
 this appeal, the subtle statesman acted 
 agreeably to the advice he had received 
 from the French Ambassador, of not 
 suffering any two of the accused to be 
 confronted either before or upon their 
 trial. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 
 
 OK. 
 
 " My Lord, it is/' said the four 
 judges with great promptitude. 
 
 Raleigh coolly observed to them, that 
 '^ the king at his coronation is sworn in 
 omnibus judiciis suis equitatem, non 
 rigore?n legis, observare. By the rigour 
 and cruelty of the law it may be for- 
 cible evidence." 
 
 "This is not the rigour of the law, 
 but the justice of the law," said the 
 Chief Justice Popham. 
 
 " Oh ! my Lord, you may use 
 equity," added Raleigh in a firm tone. 
 
 '^ That is from the King," retorted 
 the Lord Chief Justice ; "you are to 
 have justice from us," — the last word 
 of the sentence receiving a peculiar 
 emphasis to place it in contrast with 
 the official name of the chief magis- 
 trate. 
 
 "The law is," added Lord Anderson, 
 " if the matter be proved to the jury, 
 they must find you guilty ; for Cob-
 
 TIIL IIISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 14? 
 
 ham's accusation is not the only charge 
 against you ; there are other things 
 sufficient." 
 
 And Lord Cecil, equal to his father^ 
 Lord Burleigh, in talents, and as re- 
 morseless in the prosecution of his poli- 
 tical advancement, added, '' Now that 
 Sir Walter Raleigh is satisfied that 
 Cobham's subscription is not necessar}^, 
 I pray you, Mr. Attorney, go on." 
 
 But Raleigh besought Coke thus : — 
 *' Good Mr. Attorney, be patient, give 
 me leave " 
 
 Whereupon the Lord Cecil exclaimed, 
 " an unnecessary impatience is a hin- 
 drance, let him go on with his proofs, 
 and then repel them." 
 
 '' I would answer particularly," said 
 Raleigh. 
 
 " If you would have a table and pen 
 and ink," replied Cecil, '^ you shall ;" 
 and these were accordingly furnished 
 the prisoner. 
 
 H 2
 
 148 BLIGHTED AMBmON : OR 
 
 Coke then proceeded with the exami- 
 nations of Copley, Watson, Brooke, 
 and Lawrency, and inferred from the 
 confession of Brooke, that as letters had 
 passed between Cobham and Aremberg, 
 for a great sum of money, to assist a second 
 action for the surprising of his Majesty ; 
 and as Raleigh supped with Cobham 
 on the evening of a particular day, when 
 that nobleman visited the Ambassador, 
 therefore now he must be a traitor. *' The 
 crown," continued Coke, " shall not 
 stand one year on the head of the King, 
 my master, if a traitor may not be con- 
 demned by circumstances : for if A. 
 tells B., and B. tells C, and C. tells D., 
 and so on, you shall never prove trea- 
 f^on by two witnesses. 
 
 Whether Raleigh found himself ham- 
 leered at this turn which the argument 
 took, or his spirit failed him, and con- 
 science pricked smartly, we stop not to
 
 ITHE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 149 
 
 inquire, but according to the commis- 
 sioners, he tripped sadly in these words: 
 " The Attorney hath made a long nar- 
 ration of Copley, and the Priests, which 
 concerns me nothing, neither know I 
 how Cobham was altered; for he told 
 me if I would agree to further the 
 peace, he would get me eight thousand 
 crowns. I asked him, who shall have 
 the rest of the money ? He said I w^ill 
 offer such a nobleman (who was not 
 named) some of the money. I said he 
 will not be persuaded by you, and he 
 will extremely hate you for such a 
 motion. Let me be piD<;hed to death 
 with hot irons, if ever I knew there was 
 any intention to bestow the money on 
 discontented persons. I made a dis- 
 course against the peace. If the Priests, 
 if Cobham, if Brooke had any such 
 intent, what is that to me ? They must 
 answer for it. He offered me the money
 
 150 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 before the arrival of Aremberg ; that 
 is difference of time." 
 
 '' Raleigh confesseth the matter/' 
 ejaculated Serjeant Philips, " but avoid- 
 eth it by distinguishing of times." 
 
 ^^ Allege me any ground or cause," 
 interrupted Lord Henry Howard, but 
 addressing himself to Raleigh, " where- 
 fore you gave ear to my Lord Cobham 
 for receiving pensions, in matters you 
 had not to deal with ?" 
 
 "Could I stop my Lord Cobham's 
 mouth ?" said Raleigh. 
 
 " Sir Walter Raleigh presseth," added 
 Cecil, '' that my Lord Cobham should 
 be brought face to face. If he asks 
 things of favour and grace, they must 
 ^ come only from him that can give them. 
 If we sit here as Commissioners, how 
 shall we be satisfied whether he ought 
 to be brought, unless we hear the judges 
 speak?"
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 151 
 
 This was a point blank question upon 
 a point of law, and the Lord Chief 
 Justice^ with great readiness, answered, 
 '' This thing cannot be granted, for then- 
 a number of treasons should flourish : 
 the accuser may be drawn by practice 
 while he is in person : he may commit 
 himself.'' — 
 
 " And this/' said J ustice Gawdy, 
 " this it? confirmed by the very statute 
 you speak of concerning two witnesses 
 in case of treason ; it was found to 
 be inconvenient, therefore by another 
 law it was taken away." 
 
 " The common trial of England," 
 said Raleigh, '^ is by jury and witnesses." 
 
 *^ Oh no!" ejaculated the Chief Jus- 
 tice Popham, " not in all cases ; — but 
 by examination : if three conspire a trea- 
 son, and they all confess it, here is never 
 a v/itness, yet they are condemned." 
 
 And in this opinion coincided Justice
 
 152 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 Warburton, who snivelled out, " I mar- 
 vel. Sir Walter, that you, being of such 
 experience and wit, should stand on this 
 point ; for so many horse-stealers may 
 escape, if they may not be condemned 
 without witnesses." 
 
 " I know not how you conceive the 
 law," said Raleigh 
 
 " Nay, we do not conceive the law," 
 said the Lord Chief Justice, interrupt- 
 ing the prisoner ; '' we do not conceive 
 the law, but we know the law." 
 
 " The wisdom of the law of God is 
 absolute and perfect," said Raleigh. 
 '^ H<EC fac et vives. But now, by the 
 wisdom of the state, the wisdom of the 
 law is uncertain." 
 
 " You plead hard for yourself," ex- 
 claimed the Chief Justice, '' but the laws 
 plead as hard for the King." 
 
 '' The King desires nothing but the 
 knowledge of the truth," rejoined Ra-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 153 
 
 teigh, " and would have no advantage 
 taken by a severity of the law. If there 
 be but a trial of five marks at common 
 law^ a witness must be deposed. Good, 
 my Lords, let my accuser come face to 
 face and be deposed." 
 
 " You have no law for it," interrupted 
 Popham ; " God forbid any man should 
 accuse himself upon his oath !" 
 
 " The law presumes a man will not 
 accuse himself to accuse another," added 
 Coke ; " and you are an odious man, 
 master Raleigh ; for Cobham thinks his 
 cause the worse that you are in it. 
 Brooke said the stirs in Scotland came 
 out of Raleigh's head ; note you that, 
 my masters." 
 
 " Brooke hath been taught his lesson," 
 observed Raleigh very coolly, looking 
 at the same time towards Lord Henry 
 Howard. 
 
 *^ This examination was taken before," 
 H 3
 
 154 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OK, 
 
 said that nobleman ; ^' did I teach him 
 his lesson ?" 
 
 " I protest, before God, I meant it 
 not by any privy-councillor," said Ra- 
 leigh, in his own defence, adding, " but, 
 because money is scant, he will juggle 
 on both sides. The way to invade Eng- 
 land were to begin with stirs in Scot- 
 land ? — I think so still — I have said so 
 to manv noblemen, to divers lords of 
 the council, by way of discourse and 
 opinion." 
 
 ^' Open confession is good for the soul ; 
 DOW let us come to these words," said 
 Coke, " the destroying of the King and 
 his cubs." 
 
 '* Oh, barbarous !" exclaimed Raleigh, 
 " if they, like unnatural villains, shall 
 use these words, should I be charged 
 with them ; I never plotted against my 
 country ; I was never false to the crown 
 of England ; I have spent four thousand
 
 THE lUSE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 155 
 
 pounds against the Spanish faction, for 
 the good of my country. Do you bring 
 the words of those fiends^ Clark^ Wat- 
 son, and others, against me ?" 
 
 " Thou hast a Spanish heart," re- 
 torted Coke, whose knowledge of the 
 law was far surpassed by his brutality of 
 speech and tyranny of office, " and thou 
 art thyself a fiend of hell. Watson 
 saith that George Brooke told him twice 
 that his brother, the Lord Cobham, said 
 to him, ' you are but on the bye ; Ra- 
 leigh and I are on the main' — the tak- 
 ing away the life of the King" 
 
 Brooke never loved me," said Raleigh ; 
 until I was accused by his brother, he 
 said nothing." 
 
 " We have heard nothing that might 
 lead us to think that Brooke accused 
 you," echoed Cecil ; ^^ he was only in 
 the surprising treason." 
 
 " The book, Raleigh," said Coke im- 
 petuously, " the book."
 
 156 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 " The book Cobham took off my ta- 
 ble, on which I had laid it when settling 
 my estate to answer a challenge I re- 
 ceived from Sir Amias Preston." 
 
 ^^ Where had you this book?" inquired 
 Lord Howard. 
 
 " In the old Lord Treasurer's study, 
 after his death," replied Raleigh. 
 
 " Did you ever shew, or make known 
 the book to me ?" asked Cecil. 
 
 '^ No, my lord," answered Raleigh ; 
 the book was in manuscript." 
 
 '' It was against the King's title," said 
 Coke exultingly. 
 
 " It was writ long ago and burned," 
 said Raleigh ; " burned by George 
 Brooke, too, without my privity : I pro- 
 test, before God and all his works, I 
 gave him not this book." 
 
 Coke, at this moment, charged Sir Ro- 
 bert Wroth, one of the jury, with saying 
 that this evidence was not material; but
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 157 
 
 Sir Robert denied the imputation : the At- 
 torney-General called upon Serjeant Phi- 
 lips to testify if he had heard that speech; 
 but Cecil cut the matter short, by de- 
 claring, " I will give my word for Sir 
 Robert Wroth ;" and the courageous 
 knight himself replied to Coke, " I will 
 speak as truly as you, Mr. Attorney, 
 for by God, I never spake it. 
 
 *^ Wherefore should the book be burn- 
 ed ?" demanded the Lord Chief Justice 
 Popham. 
 
 " I burned it not/' replied Raleigh ; 
 " I never read it, commended it, deli- 
 vered it, nor urged it." 
 
 '' Why, this is cunning," said Coke, 
 smiling. 
 
 " Every thing that doth make for me 
 is cunning," retorted Raleigh, " and 
 every thing that doth make against me 
 is probable." 
 
 " Lord Cobham saith, that Kemish
 
 158 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 came to him with a letter torn," added 
 Coke, ^^and did wish him not to be dis- 
 mayed, for one witness could not hurt 
 him." 
 
 '^ This poor man," said Raleigh in 
 reply, " has been offered the rack to 
 make him confess." 
 
 Lord Henry Howard, iii great agita- 
 tion, exclaimed, " Kemish was never on 
 the rack, the King gave charge that no 
 rigour should be used ;" — and the other 
 Commissioners, separately, " protested, 
 before God, there was no such matter 
 pretended, to their knowledge." 
 
 " Was not the keeper of the rack 
 sent for," asked Raleigh, " and Kemish 
 threatened with it ?" 
 
 Sir Wm. Wade here took courage, 
 and replied, " When Mr. Solicitor and 
 myself examined Kemish, we told him 
 he deserved the rack, but did not threaten 
 him with it."
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 159 
 
 " I am accused," continued Raleigh, 
 " concerning" the Lady Arabella, con- 
 cerning money from Spain. My Lord 
 Chief Justice saith, a man may be con- 
 demned with one witness ; — yea, with- 
 out any witness. My Lords ! let Cob- 
 ham be brought, being alive and in the 
 house ; let him avouch any of these 
 things, T will confess the whole in- 
 dictment, and renounce the King's 
 mercy." 
 
 Lord Cecil gravely said in a loud key, 
 '• Let us not scandalize the innocent by 
 confusion of speech ; the Lady Arabella 
 is as innocent of all these things as I, or 
 any man here ; only she received a letter 
 from Cobham to prepare her, which she 
 laughed at, and immediately sent it to 
 the King." 
 
 The Loi^d ^Nottingham, who was 
 standing with the Lady Arabella, spoke, 
 saying, '^ the Lady doth here protest.
 
 160 BLIGHTRD AMBITION; OR, 
 
 upon her salvation, that she never dealt 
 in any of these things." 
 
 " Let me speak for my life," exclaimed 
 Raleigh firmly and with dignity, " it 
 can be no hurt for my Lord Cobham to 
 be brought ; he dares not accuse me. 
 If you grant me not this, I am strangely 
 used." 
 
 " He is a party," said Coke, " and 
 may not come ; the law is against it." 
 
 " It is all a toy to tell me of law," 
 said Raleigh scornfully ; " I defy such 
 law, I stand on the fact." 
 
 *^ My affection to you. Sir Walter 
 Raleigh," uttered Cecil smoothly, '' w^as 
 not extinguished, but slaked, in regard 
 to your deserts. You know by the law 
 of the land, that my Lord Cobham can- 
 not be brought." 
 
 '' He may my Lord," said Raleigh 
 sharply. 
 
 " But dare you challenge it?" asked 
 Cecil.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 161 
 
 " No !" was the reply of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. 
 
 '' Let me ask you this/' said Cecil, 
 " if my Lord Cobham will say you were 
 the only instigator of him to proceed in 
 the treasons, dare you put yourself on 
 this?" 
 
 " If he will speak it before God and 
 the King," said Raleigh with great bold- 
 ness, " that ever I knew of Arabella's 
 matter, or the money out of Spain, or 
 of the surprising treason ; I put myself 
 on it, God's will and the King's be done 
 with me." 
 
 " How," ejaculated Lord Henry How- 
 ard, " if he speak things equivalent to 
 what you have said ?" 
 
 *^ Yes, in the main point," answered 
 Raleigh. 
 
 " If he say," asked Cecil warily, " if 
 he say, you have been the instigator 
 of him to deal with the Spanish King,
 
 162 
 
 had not the council cause to draw you 
 thither?'' 
 
 " I put myself on it," said Raleigh, 
 not a muscle of his frame relaxing, nor 
 his natural colour leaving his face ; '' I 
 put myself on it ;" he added. 
 
 " Then," said Lord Cecil, " then Sir 
 Walter, call upon God, and prepare 
 yourself; for I do verily believe my 
 Lords will prove this. Excepting your 
 faults, I call them no worse, by God, 
 I am your friend. The heat and passion 
 in you, and the Attorney's zeal in the 
 King's service, make me speak this." 
 
 ^^ The jury hath heard the matter," 
 exclaimed Coke with evident joy ; "^ my 
 Lords, I move the court that Dyer be 
 called in ;" and in a short space, to the 
 great satisfaction of the attorney-gene- 
 ral, this man appeared, was swoi"n, 
 and delivered as evidence : — 
 
 " That in Lisbon, whither he had
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOxMERSET. 163 
 
 been, he was asked if he were an Eng- 
 lishman, and if the King was crowned ?" 
 and answering ^' no," but he hoped he 
 would shortly, the Portuguese said " he 
 shall never be crowned, for before that 
 day comes, Don Raleigh and Don Cob- 
 ham will cut his throat." 
 
 " And what infer you from this?" 
 asked Raleigh, more amused than con- 
 founded by the tale of Dyer. 
 
 '' That your treason hath wings," re- 
 plied Coke. 
 
 " Consider, gentlemen of the jury," 
 said Raleigh, " there is no cause 
 so doubtful, which the King's counsel 
 cannot make good against the law. 
 Consider my disability and their abili- 
 ty ; they prove nothing against me, 
 only they bring the accusation of my 
 Lord Cobham, which he hath lamented 
 and repented, as heartily as if it had 
 been a horrible murder ; for he knew 
 that all this sorrow which came to me, 
 came by his means. If you would be
 
 164 BLIGHTED AMBITION: OR. 
 
 contented, on presumptions, to be de- 
 livered up to be slaughtered, to have 
 your wives and children turned into the 
 streets to beg their bread ; if you would 
 be contented to be so judged, judge so 
 of me." 
 
 Serjeant Philips replied to this obser- 
 vation, saying, *• Raleigh hath no an- 
 swer but the shadow of as much wit, as 
 the wit of man can de\'ise ; hath used 
 his bare denial : the denial of a defend- 
 ant must not move the jury. Cobham's 
 testification against him before the Star 
 Chamber, and since, hath been largely 
 discussed.'' 
 
 *• If truth be constant, and constancy 
 be in truth, why hath Cobham for5T\-orn 
 that which he hath said ? You have not 
 proved any one thing against me by di- 
 rect proofs, but all by circumstances." 
 
 This accusation of his persecutor's un- 
 fairness seemed to gall the attorney-gene- 
 ral, who fiercely demanded '' Have you 
 done ? — the King must have the last."
 
 THL RI.sE AND FaLL OF SOMERSET. 165 
 
 '• Nay, yir. Attorney.*" replied Ra- 
 leigh, '• he who pleadeth for his life. 
 must speak last. False repetitions and 
 mistakin^s must not mar my cause. 
 You shoidd speak secundian allegata ei 
 probata, I appeal to God and the King 
 in this point, whether Cobham's accusa- 
 tioD be sufficient to condemn me ?" 
 
 '' The Kmg's safety and your acquittal 
 cannot a^iree."* exclaimed the attornev- 
 general ; *' I protest before God. I never 
 heard, nor knew a clearer treason.*' 
 
 '- I never had intelligence with Coi>- 
 ham/' said Raleigh, ^' never since I came 
 io the Tower." 
 
 • G . I will lay thee on thy back 
 for the veriest traitor that ever came to a 
 bar,-* cried Coke. '^ Why should you take 
 eight thousand crowns for a peace ?' 
 
 Even the Secretary of State thought 
 this a little too hard upon Raleigh, for 
 he said with much softness to Coke. "* Be
 
 166 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OH, 
 
 not so impatient good Mr. Attorney, 
 give him leave to speak." 
 
 " If I may not be patiently heard," 
 exclaimed the attorney-general^ the co- 
 lour leaving his cheeks, and his lips qui- 
 vering as he spoke, " If I may not be 
 patiently heard, you will encourage 
 traitors, and discourage us. I am the 
 King's sworn servant, and must speak ; 
 if he be guilty, he is a traitor: if not, 
 deliver him." And as he finished these 
 words, he sat down in a chafe, and 
 would speak no more until the commis- 
 sioners urged and entreated him. After 
 much ado, he went on and made a long 
 narration of all the evidence, for the 
 direction of the jury. At the repeating 
 of some things purely of his own inven- 
 tion, Sir Walter Raleigh interrupted 
 him, saying, " You do oie wrong, my 
 master." 
 
 Coke did not deign to reply other-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 167 
 
 wise^ than by saying " Thou art the most 
 vile and execrable traitor that ever 
 lived." 
 
 '' You speak indiscreetly, barbarously, 
 and uncivilly," said Raleigh. 
 
 To which Coke replied, '' I want 
 words sufScient to express thy viperous 
 treasons." 
 
 '' I think you want words indeed," 
 replied Raleigh, " for you have spoken 
 one thing half a dozen times." 
 
 ^' Thou art an odious fellow," ex- 
 claimed Coke, '' thy name is hateful to 
 all the realm of England for thy pride." 
 
 " It v/ill go near to prove a measur- 
 ing cast between you and me, Mr. At- 
 torney," said Raleigh. 
 
 '* There never lived a viler viper upon 
 the face of the earth than thou," re- 
 torted Coke, taking at the same time 
 from his pocket a letter from Lord Cob- 
 ham, Vv'herein he accused Raleigh of 
 having been the origin of his ruin.
 
 l68 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 " You have heard a strange tale of a 
 strange man/' said Raleigh^ when the 
 attorney-general finished^ *^ now he 
 thinks he hath matter enough to destroy 
 me ; but the King and all of you shall 
 witness by our deaths, which of us was 
 the ruin of the other. I bid a poor fel- 
 low throw in a letter at his window, 
 written to this purpose, ' you know you 
 have undone me, now write three lines 
 to justify me !' In this I will die; he hath 
 done me wrong." 
 
 The chief Justice Popham, who had 
 preserved an extraordinary silence for 
 some time, now spoke, asking the pri- 
 soner : ''But what say you of the letter 
 and the pension of fifteen hundred a 
 year ?" 
 
 " I say that Cobham is a base, dishon- 
 ourable, poor soul," answered Raleigh. 
 
 " Is he base ?" retorted Coke, '' I re- 
 turn it in thy throat on his behalf; but 
 for thee, he had been a good subject."
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 169 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice was also of this 
 opinion, for he backed the Attorney-Ge- 
 neral by declaring to Raleigh, " I per- 
 ceive you are not so clear a man as you 
 have protested all this while ; for you 
 should have discovered these matters to 
 the King." 
 
 Raleigh, who had been interrupted 
 when he declared that he had employed a 
 poor fellow to throw a letter in at Lord 
 Cobham's window, asking him to write 
 three lines to justify him, now pulled a 
 letter out of his pocket, which the Lord 
 Cobham had written to him purely jus- 
 tificatory ; and, looking Lord Cecil 
 in the face, desired his lordship to read 
 it, because he alone knew Lord Cob- 
 ham's hand. 
 
 Cecil took the letter, acknowledged it 
 to be the writing of Lord Cobham, and 
 read as follows: — '^Seeing myself so 
 near my end, for the discharge of my 
 own conscience, and freeing myself 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR^ 
 
 from your blood, which else will cry 
 vengeance against me, I protest upon 
 my salvation, I never practised by Spain, 
 with your procurement ; God so com- 
 fort me, in this my affliction, as you 
 are a true subject for any thing I know. 
 I will say as Daniel, Purus sum a sa?i' 
 guine hiijiis. So God have mercy 
 upon my soul as I know of no treason 
 by you," 
 
 The commissioners looked in each 
 others faces, and appeared chop fallen ; 
 the Attorney-General whispered to Ser- 
 jeant Phillips, re-adjusted his gown, and 
 was preparing to speak, when Raleigh 
 exclaimed. — '•' Now I wonder how many 
 souls this poor man hath ! He damns 
 one in this letter, and another in that.'' 
 
 The whole court, judges, commissi- 
 oners, counsel, and the spectators who 
 were numerous and of noble blood, now 
 seemed much agitated, and to an indif- 
 ferent person, the prisoner's acquittal
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 171 
 
 would have been manifest, especially as 
 the Attorney- General closed his case, 
 by alledging that " Lord Cobham's last 
 letter had been politicly and cunningly 
 urged from him, and that the first was 
 ftimply the truth ;" and lest it should 
 seem doubtful, that the first letter was 
 drawn from Lord Cobham by promise 
 of mercy or hope of favour, the Lord 
 Chief Justice, desirous that the jury 
 might be satisfied therein, demanded 
 a corroboration of this matter ; where- 
 upon the Earl of Devonshire declared 
 that the same was merely voluntary, 
 and not extracted from Lord Cob- 
 ham upon any hopes of promise or 
 pardon. 
 
 This was the last evidence offered ; 
 the prisoner had defended himself, the 
 chief justice had summed up, andamar- 
 ishal was sworn to keep the jury private. 
 They departed, and staid not a quarter 
 I 2
 
 172 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OKy 
 
 of an hour, but returned, and gave their 
 
 verdict guilty, "^^ 
 
 Serjeant Heale thereupon demanded 
 judgment against the prisoner, and the 
 clerk of the crown addressed him in the 
 usual form ; and asked why judgment 
 and execution of death should not pass 
 against him ?" 
 
 " My Lords/^ said Raleigh, unmoved 
 by the judgment of the jury, the demand 
 of Serjeant Heale, and the address of 
 the clerk of the crown — " My Lords, 
 the jury have found me guilty ; they 
 must do as they are directed. I can 
 say nothing why judgment should not 
 proceed. You see whereof Cobham 
 
 * Coke, whose unseemly and outrageous violence 
 in conducting the prosecution against Raleigh, stamps 
 hini one of the most infamous tools that ever served 
 the purposes of tyrannic power, no sooner heard the 
 conviction pronounced, than he exclaimed — '' Now 
 shall Jesus Christ be glorified/'
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 173 
 
 haih accused me; you remember his 
 protestations that I never was guilty ; I 
 desire the King should know the wrongs 
 done unto me since I came hither." 
 
 " You have had no wrong, Sir Wal- 
 ter Raleigh," said the Lord Chief Jus- 
 tice. 
 
 " Yes, of Mr. Attorney," said Ra- 
 leigh, 
 
 " In my conscience, I am persuaded 
 that Cobham hath accused you truly/' 
 said the Lord Chief Justice. 
 
 ^* I submit myself to the King's 
 mercy; which I know is greater than 
 my offence. I recommend my wife and 
 son to his compassion." 
 
 The Chief Justice then proceeded to 
 pass the awful sentence of the lav/ 
 against the prisoner, whom he accused, 
 '^ as a spy of Spain, a man false to his 
 King, a wretch who had been taxed 
 by the world with the most heathenish 
 and blasphemous opinions, whose authors
 
 174 BLIGHTED AMBITION \ OK, 
 
 and iiiaintainers should not be suffered 
 to live in any christian commonwealth.'^ 
 
 After saying which, the usual sentence 
 of death was pronounced. 
 
 Sir Walter besought the Earl of 
 Devonshire and the nobles present, to 
 be his suitors to the King that his death 
 might be honourable, and not ignomi- 
 nious; their Lordships promised to do 
 so, and the Chief Justice ordered the 
 prisoner to be immediately removed 
 from the bar. 
 
 As soon as the arraignments were 
 passed, his Majesty's Privy Councillors, 
 includingthe Commissioners, were called 
 before the King, in his privy-chamber 
 at Wilton, where he commanded them, 
 without any respect of persons, to deli- 
 ver the true narration only; of the order 
 of the trial, of the nature and degree of 
 their offences, as had appeared in every 
 one of them, by their general answers. 
 The King heard all with much apparent
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 175 
 
 gravity, and put on such repulsive re- 
 servedness, that none of those who were 
 about his royal person ventured to me- 
 diate for any^ or so much as to inquire 
 what should be the conclusion of this 
 proceeding. With that secret and 
 orderly carriage, whereof his Majesty 
 was careful to prevent all suspicion, he 
 signed the warrants for the execution of 
 the priests, and Master George Brooke, 
 and also for the execution of the Lords 
 Cobham and Grey, and Sir Griffin 
 Markham, Knight, v*^ith particular di- 
 rections to the Sheriff to perform it on 
 the Friday after, before ten o'clock in 
 the morning. 
 
 James, however, seemed satisfied with 
 the immolating of the priests and Brooke, 
 for without asking any person, it pleased 
 him to resolve that the execution of the 
 Lords Grey and Cobham, and Sir Grif- 
 fin Markham, should be staid even at 
 the moment when the axe should have
 
 176 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OKf 
 
 decided their doom. The manner in 
 which his Majesty went about this, 
 showed both foresight and discretion. 
 The warrant to countermand the execu- 
 tion was given to an obscure person, 
 that the byestanders should not observe 
 any alteration, nor the delinquents them- 
 selves have any suspicion of such a man's 
 being there at that time. For James 
 wished the prisoners, when brought 
 upon the scaifold, might quietly breathe 
 forth their last words, and true confes- 
 sion of their most secret conscience. 
 
 " Now/' said the King to this mes- 
 senger, " thou hast never dealt wi' ony 
 councillor, or business, and Johnny 
 Gibb thou 'st now just come up frae 
 our ain country^ and art not mickle 
 known. Thou must go to Winchester 
 secretly on Thursday, and take wi' thee 
 this warrant to keep the heads on the 
 bodies o' these loons, Cobham, Grey^ 
 and Markham. — Ye must lye this night
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 177 
 
 -at Salisbury on private business o' your 
 ain, and there keep yourself quiet, and 
 next morning go to Winchester. On 
 Friday morning ye sail rise early, and 
 gang obscurely to the Castle Green, 
 where the people will be flocking in a' 
 the morning. At the same time you'll 
 draw near, put yourself in amang the 
 thrang, close by the scaffold, and there 
 bide till the Sheriff bring up Sir Griffin 
 Markham to the place, for he is the man 
 appointed first to die.- — Then Gibby, 
 my man, thou must let the sumph end 
 his prayer, and make himself ready to 
 kneel down, then thou 'It find it the 
 fit time while the axe is preparing, to 
 call to the Sheriff Tichbourne, and de- 
 liver to him my warrant. — Tell him, 
 Gibby, to say to the prisoner, that he is 
 to return into the Hall, to be there con- 
 fronted wi' the two Lords ; so he's dis- 
 posed of. Then observe me, Gibby, bid 
 the Sheriff bring Grey and Cobham on 
 I 3
 
 178 
 
 the scaiFold, likewise, and let the fools 
 say their prayers, and make their last con- 
 fessions, as they would answer upon their 
 souls ; and when the gouk Grey is ready 
 to kneel down and receive the stroke of 
 death, tell master Sheriff to take him 
 down for a while into the Hall. And 
 the same being done, wi* the Lord Cob- 
 ham when he is ready to kneel down 
 and receive the stroke of the axe, the 
 other two prisoners will be brought out 
 of the Hall, and thou '11 be carefu' the 
 Sheriff then cause our royal mercy to 
 be publicly read to the world. — Go 
 Gibby, go — be faithfu', and I'll serve 
 thee." 
 
 John Gibb went accordingly, and 
 executed to the letter the elaborate 
 commands of his King, so that " the 
 scene of that day seemed rather a well 
 acted comedy out of ancient history, 
 than the lively figures of justice and 
 mercy in a Sovereign, of terror and
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET, 179 
 
 penitence in offenders, and of so great 
 admiration and applause in the numerous 
 spectators who were present, as ap- 
 peared in this action, carried only and 
 wholly by his Majesty's own direction,''
 
 180 BLIGHTED ambition; OK, 
 
 CHAP. vin. 
 
 I remember about thirty years ago an eminent 
 divine, who was also most exactly well bred, told his 
 congregation at Whitehall, that if they did not 
 vouchsafe to give their lives a new turn, they must 
 certainly go to a place which he did not choose to name 
 in that courtly audience. It is with me as with that 
 gentleman ; I would, if pgssible, represent the errors 
 (»f life, especially those arising from what we call 
 gallantry, in such a manner as the people of pleasure 
 may read me, 
 
 THE GUARDIAN, NO. 17. 
 
 In every thing relative to Sir Walter 
 Raleigh's conspiracy^ Overbury, whom 
 we found so zealous at the commence- 
 ment of its discovery, makes no figure 
 in its subsequent stages ; — it may there- 
 fore be necessary to account for his 
 entire absence from an affair in which
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 181 
 
 he appeared to embark with ardour, and 
 from which he promised himself both 
 honour and advantage. The cause of 
 his absence will lead us into some details 
 of an antecedent project of this man ; 
 but without pledging ourselves for being 
 historically, w^e shall vouch for being 
 circumstantially, correct m our narra- 
 tive ; and thus while the world may 
 admire the history of the seventeenth 
 century, in its commencement, as a spe- 
 cies of philosophy, teaching by example, 
 the romance of the same period may 
 become a mirror reflecting the passions 
 which created materials for the elements 
 of that philosophy. 
 
 Overbury, on quitting Lawrency, re- 
 paired to his mistress, whom he found in 
 deep distress, which was the cause of his 
 non-appearance in any part of the busi- 
 ness he looked forward to with so much 
 solicitude ; but we are anticipating events, 
 and shall, therefore, explain the origin
 
 182 
 
 of Overbury's connexion with the 
 female in question. 
 
 During Overbury's travels abroad, he 
 made a short stay at Milan, when he 
 beheld the lovely Gabriella, youngest 
 daughter of an exiled English gentleman, 
 high in favour with the then reigning 
 Duke. Gabriella was however destined 
 for the cloister, but her inclinations were 
 not consulted on this important point ; 
 like many other victims of family pride, 
 she was to be sacrificed to the aggran- 
 disement of her family, whose slender 
 fortune was scarcely suflBcient to sup- 
 port the claims of that dignity they 
 were so proud of. 
 
 Gabriella was about seventeen years 
 of age when Overbury, who was invited 
 as a chosen guest to the wedding of 
 her elder brother, first saw her — It 
 was at the particular request of this bro- 
 ther that she was allowed to be present 
 at the solemnization of his nuptials.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 183 
 
 Overbury no sooner beheld than he 
 loved, nor was the fair Gabriella insen- 
 sible to the charms and noble bearing of 
 the handsome English stranger. He 
 could not contemplate the unhappy fate 
 to which this beautiful girl was doomed, 
 without a desire to relieve her from it. 
 He obtained an interview with her 
 by means of a peasant, who had 
 nursed Gabriella from her infancy, and 
 who, good catholic as she was, yet could 
 not help regretting that her young mis- 
 tress's charms should be concealed in a 
 nunnery. The old woman listened with 
 attention and interest to Overbury's re- 
 grets upon the same subject^ and he 
 ventured to express his admiration of the 
 fair Gabriella's person, lamenting, at 
 the same time; that being an English 
 gentleman only, he knew it would be in 
 vain to hope that an offer of marriage 
 from him would be accepted by her ex- 
 iled parent;, however the inclinations of
 
 184 BLIGHTED AMBITIOX; OR, 
 
 the lady^ whose favour he was so anxious 
 to solicit, might be inclined to listen to 
 his proposals. 
 
 The old nurse sighed, and owned his 
 observations were too true. 
 
 " Alas! Signor, you would do well 
 to think upon this subject no more. 
 The Signora has, from her birth, been 
 educated for the cloister, and except on 
 the day of the young Count's marriage, 
 she has never worn any dress but that 
 of the monastery she is about to enter. 
 She commences her novitiate next week. 
 
 Overbury now became exceedingly 
 agitated, and while he was rapidly 
 pacing backwards and forwards in the 
 humble dwelling of the nurse Antonia 
 -2r-the object of his thoughts suddenly 
 appeared. She started at seeing Over- 
 bury, and would have quitted the cot — 
 when he stepped forward and entreated 
 she would not deprive him of the only 
 happiness he had on earth. " Fair Ga-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 185 
 
 briella," he continued "fly me not, — alas! 
 that I had never seen those charms, 
 which as far exceed those of any other 
 lady as light exceeds darkness ; would 
 to Heaven your heart were as sensible 
 to the flame of love as your charms are 
 capable of exciting it !" 
 
 The fair Gabriella blushed, but timid- 
 ity closed her lips : the word love, ad- 
 dressed to her, was as unexpected as it 
 was novel ; from infancy the dangers 
 and troubles of this passion had been 
 deeply impressed upon her mind, but 
 the sober joys of a monastic life, the 
 blessedness of her future fate, and the 
 calm blights of solitude, vanished into 
 airy nothing as she listened to the im- 
 passioned language of love. A crowd 
 of sensations, new and indefinable, over- 
 whelmed her ; her heart beat quickly, 
 her large dark eye fell in languid lustre 
 on the prostrate Overbury, gentle sighs
 
 186 
 
 succeeded, her bosom heaved, and hei* 
 limbs trembled, as her imagination con- 
 jvw»ed up the walls of her monastery, 
 the dull formality of her future life, the 
 sage and austere deportment of the ab- 
 bess ; the contrast operated so forcibly 
 upon her youthful heart that she burst 
 into tears. Overbury, subdued by this 
 display of feeling, seized her hand, and 
 covered it with burninf*- kisses. But 
 Gabriella, unaccustomed to the smallest 
 approach to familiarity, withdrew it in- 
 dignantly, and Overbury, more ena- 
 moured by her modest indignation, fell 
 on his knees, and swore never to think 
 of lady or of love, save only her. 
 '^ Let me" he continued, '^ bear with 
 me some token of your forgiveness;'' 
 then suddenly rising, and striking his 
 forehead, he exclaimed " cruel fate, it 
 must not, shall not be : promise me, fair 
 Gabriella, that you will permit me to-
 
 tflE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 18t 
 
 morrow, on this very spot, to repeat 
 my vows, and to pour forth my love at 
 your feet ?" 
 
 " Sir/' said the trembling girl," I 
 crave your pardon ; I am professed ; and 
 to listen to vows of love would be a 
 crime which could only be expunged by 
 penitence and prayer." Her voice fault- 
 ered as she spoke, and the colour fled her 
 cheek, as she waved her hand to Over- 
 bury, who was about to reply, and she 
 continued thus, " say no more I pray 
 you ; my fate is irrevocably fixed ; may 
 you be happy, and in your own fair 
 land meet a heart free as your country, 
 kind as vour fondest wishes." 
 
 Overbury, unable any longer to con- 
 troul his feelings, burst into an invective 
 against monastic in^itutions, and the 
 insatiate pride of her family, which 
 could only be gratified by the sacrifice 
 of so much loveliness. 
 
 " Dearest Gabriella," he exclaimed,
 
 188 
 
 '^ fly then to that fair land, where no 
 gloomy cloisters frown ; fly with me 
 dear excellence, and then, sheltered by 
 Elizabeth's power, thou shalt enjoy all 
 that her happy land bestows." 
 
 Gabriella heaved a sigh, and a tear 
 hung on her eyelid as she replied, " It 
 cannot be : alas ! why do I listen to 
 thy dangerous tongue, domestic happi- 
 ness is not for me;" here the poor trem- 
 bling girl burst into tears and sunk 
 upon the rude seat her nurse had just 
 quitted. 
 
 Overbury again fell on his knees 
 before her, and in the most passionate 
 language, intreated she would meet 
 him on the following day. '^ This is 
 all I ask at present, dearest, loveliest 
 lady. Oh ! do not refuse to grant this 
 poor request." 
 
 Gabriella, after some hesitation, con- 
 sented to meet him on the ensuing day. 
 " But go," she cried, " for Heaven's
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 189 
 
 sake, begone ! — should father Francis 
 see you here ! — Merciful Heaven ! what 
 would be my fate." The agony her 
 tone of voice and manner expressed 
 struck upon the heart of Overbury, and 
 he left the cot, secretly cursing father 
 Francis and the whole race of monks 
 and friars. 
 
 When he was gone, the old nurse, 
 who had been a silent, yet not un- 
 observing spectator of all that had pass- 
 ed — approached her young mistress. 
 '^ Alas! Signora," she said, " ill betide 
 the day which brought this handsome 
 cavaliero to Milan. Would to Heaven 
 the ship which brought him to Italy had 
 sunk ! — dearest mistress see him not to- 
 morrow. " Think, if perchance the 
 Signor, your father — " 
 
 " No more, no more, good Antonia," 
 said Gabriella, " prithee no more, my 
 w^ord is past, and 'tis sad enough to 
 part to-morrow ; yet to see him once
 
 190 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 again, will be a fleeting pleasure — for 
 when in the cloisters/' — the tears flowed 
 slowly down her cheek, her soft dark 
 eye was raised to Heaven, as thus she 
 spoke in melancholy tones — " When 
 in the cloisters, I still may think upon 
 his form — his features — hear his ardent 
 voice, then sigh a prayer to Heaven to 
 bless him— since Gabriella is doomed to 
 dwell in solitude and silence, far from 
 love's delights, far from all fond and 
 social ties. Alas ! my own Antonia, 
 His even so ; one short hour has reft 
 me of peace — I feel my heart will never 
 again beat free ; cruel fate ! would to 
 Heaven he had been some neighbouring- 
 peasant's son and T a cottager's child!" 
 
 '' Dearest lady," said the fond Anto- 
 nia — '^ Would to Heaven, indeed, he 
 had never seen thy pretty face. 
 
 " Say rather," replied the love sick 
 maid — " Would to Heaven that I had 
 ne'er beheld him, — He at every turn may
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 191 
 
 see a face more fair thaD I. but when shall 
 I behold another being like him ? — Oh, 
 my poor heart I'' 
 
 *'' Pray to the blessed Virgin, lady/' 
 replied Antonia. Gabriella shook her 
 head. *'"' Xay. lady, but you must pray 
 to her : for see, father Francis hither 
 bends his steps/' 
 
 Gabriella started from her seat, and 
 as the father entered and gave her his 
 ••' Benedicite," she mechanically crossed 
 herself and stood before him with down- 
 cast countenance, pale and trembling. 
 The father locl.r:^ ^/rprised — *• Daugh- 
 ter," said he, •• ;...;.. hast seen but little 
 of the world, yet methinks thou art al- 
 readv infected bv its oriefs ; whence 
 this agitation ? 
 
 Gabriella replied not : but as she was 
 naturally timid and fearful, father Fran- 
 cis supposed she shrunk at even this 
 slight rebuke, he therefore changed bis 
 tone: '• ah daughter! happy is thy lot; 
 within a cloister's sacred walls, far from
 
 192 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 the noise and trouble of a busy world, 
 thy days in one unchanging tenor shall 
 glide gently, and proceed along like a 
 softly purling stream ; while those who 
 brave the dangers of this stormy life, 
 resemble the majestic river now dashing 
 headlong down the mountain's side, 
 now rushing impetuously along the vale, 
 where impeding rocks again divert its 
 course, and cause the stream to vent its 
 rage into foam. Happy is thy lot, my 
 daughter ; soon wilt thou be enclosed 
 far from the tempests of this world : 
 soon wilt thou become a perpetual in- 
 mate of the monastery of the Carmelite 
 nuns. Happy will be the day when 
 the gates shall close, and shut the world 
 from thee for ever.'* 
 
 The changing hue of the fair Gabriella's 
 face was lost upon the pious father, for 
 she had drawn her veil over her face, 
 and with folded arms she listened appa- 
 rently with all the attention father
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMEUSET. 193 
 
 Francis could desire : how far her feel- 
 ings were in unison with his the 
 reader need not be told. " I am bound 
 to the castle ; daughter thou wilt attend 
 me thither." 
 
 As they proceeded on their way, the 
 monk pointed out to Gabriella the va- 
 nity of all earthly possessions and pursuits 
 in language strong and powerful; but 
 the good father's eloquence was spent 
 in vain, as he endeavoured to convince 
 Gabriella that her lot was much to be 
 envied. She, however, received his 
 admonitions with silent respect, and thus 
 avoided every occasion for the good 
 monk to suppose, that his ward (he was 
 Gabriella's confessor) was insensible to 
 the blessings her parents were so anxious^ 
 to procure for her, by secluding and 
 sheltering her from the dangers and 
 anxieties of the world. 
 
 Overbury in the mean while was 
 devising a hundred different plans for 
 
 VOL, I, K
 
 19 i 
 
 persuading the fair Gabriella to flee witli 
 bim to England. 
 
 On the following morning he re- 
 paired to the cottage of Antonia ; Ga- 
 briella was not there when he entered, 
 and the nurse was much less cordial in 
 her welcome than on the day before^ 
 Overbury was, however, too much oc- 
 cupied in his own thoughts to notice her 
 coolness. Impatiently did he await the 
 arrival of Gabriella, and when he first 
 caught sight of her through the window, 
 he was on the point of quitting the cot, 
 had he not been stopped by the prudent 
 nurse : — '^ Alack -a-day, Signor," said she^ 
 interrupting him and seizing his arm,. 
 " are you mad ? — do you not know that 
 if you were seen in company with the 
 lady Gabriella, you would ruin her for 
 ever, and perhaps cause her death and 
 your own.'^ 
 
 Overbury paused, his own life he 
 held cheap, but for worlds he would not
 
 THE KISE AND FAl.L OF SOMERSET. J 95 
 
 endanger that of Gabriella ; he there- 
 fore remained passively in the cot until 
 the beloved object of his affections made 
 her appearance. After the first few 
 moments of gratulations w^ere passed, he 
 again urged, with all the eloquence he 
 could command, that she should flee 
 with him to England. 
 
 " Alas !" replied Gabriella, " you 
 know not what you ask ; how is it pos- 
 sible that I should escape unseen, undis- 
 covered. You are not aware that upon 
 the first intelligence of my flight, every 
 means will be employed to discover and 
 bring me back to shame and infamy, per- 
 haps to a cruel death." Her pale cheek, 
 as she pronounced the last words, shew- 
 ed her terror, as the narrow walled cell, 
 its scanty portion of food, its pitcher of 
 water, and small trimmed lamp, pre- 
 sented themselves successively to her 
 imagination. " Merciful Heaven I" she 
 K 2
 
 196 BXIGHTED AMBITION ; OVC,. 
 
 resumed, ^^ preserve me from a death so 
 dreadful." 
 
 " Talk not of death," interrupted 
 Overbury, " but of love, dearest Gabri* 
 ella; consent but to share my fortune 
 and my heart, and I will so. provide that 
 the inquisitorial eye, even of a. familiar^ 
 shall not discover you. Listen : my page 
 h sick, and therefore cannot at present 
 appear in public ; yoii, my love, shall 
 pass as that page's sister. To-night I 
 Vi^ill confide to Antonia's care an home- 
 ly dress, to shroud that slender form ; 
 that light and airy step must be changed 
 for one of humbler gait. Myself, clad 
 in a peasant's garb,, will guide thee to a 
 sure and safe retreat, where no keen 
 prying eye shall glance — thou wilt not 
 he:iitate, my love? Ah, sweetest maid, 
 how wilt thou grace Elizabeth's fair 
 court— Antonia, thou'lt not l3etray thy 
 mistress, Fll be sworn ?" 
 
 Gabriella sat u^iable to speak during
 
 tBE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 197 
 
 this speech of her anxious lover, while 
 Antonia wrung iier hands and wept. 
 
 *^ Oh woe betide the day," she cried, 
 *' when first you savv^ my lady. — Oh, 
 woes the day — Alack. I know not what 
 to do — s|3eak dear lady — speak to your 
 own poor nurse, what would you have 
 her do r 
 
 Gabriella in vain essayed to speak-— 
 lier lips moved, but no sound issued from 
 them — v^hen Antonia, whose eyes were 
 anxiously directed towards the window, 
 beheld father Francis bending his steps 
 towards her cot. — " Oh, Holy Virgin," 
 she exclaimed, dropping on her knees, 
 **save us." — Even Overbury himself felt 
 terror ; what then must have been the 
 feelings of poor Gabriella ? — One only 
 chance remained for Overbury^s escape, 
 and that was by a small back window. 
 Just, however, as they had resolved 
 be should pass quickly through it— th« 
 Kjottage door opened, and father Francis
 
 198 
 
 entered: — the word " Benedicite" was 
 but half pronounced, when he disco- 
 vered Overbury. 
 
 Amazement closed his lips for a time, 
 while Gabriella, sinking on her knee;?, 
 and clasping his robe in silent agony, 
 awaited his first speech as that on which 
 her future fate, her very existence de- 
 pended. The monk looked at her w^ith 
 pity — as he said mildly, "unhappy Ga- 
 briella! ill fated girl — what hast thou 
 done ?'' Then, turnly sternly towards 
 Overbury, who stood impatiently await- 
 ing the result — he addressed him thus : 
 " Great has been your conquest over a 
 weak and unsophisticated mind ; — but 
 hear me, Sir — know you the danger 
 into which you have led this sacred 
 votary of our Holy Religion — know 
 that you are within the power of that 
 dread tribunal which never fails to 
 punish crimes like thine with unrelent- 
 ing severity. — Quit, Sir, the cot, and as
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 199 
 
 you value that lady's peace and your 
 own safety, never dare, by direct or 
 indirect means, to hold future converse 
 with her. And thou — mistaken girl — 
 deluded victim, sw^ar on tlie Holy cross, 
 by the sacred vestments which enshrine 
 thy fragile form, never to see him 
 more." 
 
 ^' Hold father," said Overbury, " thou 
 hast no right to extort such an oath from 
 her," and Overbury immediately stepped 
 forward to raise Oabriclla, who had 
 fainted, from the ground. 
 
 ** Touch her not," said father Francis, 
 with kindling rage, " touch not with 
 thy unhallowed hand a vessel sacred to 
 the Lord"- — he then placed Gabriella in 
 a chair : she raised her head, and her eyes 
 met those of Overbury ; the sensation this 
 look caused was mutual, and Gabriella, 
 turned towards the monk, with a look so 
 fraught with woe, that the old man's eye 
 fell beneath the overpowering glance;
 
 200 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OU^ 
 
 — but summoning all her resolution^ 
 she proceeded thus : — '^ hear me, reve- 
 rend father :— that I have listened to a 
 tale of love is true ; — that I have felt its 
 power — '' she paused — then resumed. 
 — " Oh father ! spare me — save me from 
 the dreadful doom of a monastic life." 
 
 The father started some paces back : 
 "art thou mad, Gabriella; darest thou 
 disclose a tale like this to me ? Mer- 
 ciful Heaven !" continued the friar^, 
 crossing himself, " how art thou fallen 
 — thou lovely flower, but yesterday 
 like the unspotted lilly, pure as the 
 mountain snow, now like that same 
 flower, torn by the warping wind, ar ^ 
 levelled with the dust — thou dost fear 
 to raise thy drooping head : shame and 
 its burning blushes dye thy cheeks — and 
 nought remains but tears of agony, 
 sighs of remorse, and hours of penitence 
 and prayer to obliterate the memory of 
 these few short hours of guilt." Ga-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 201 
 
 briella raised her drooping head — blushes 
 it is true dyed her lovely cheeks, but 
 they were not raised by shame — no, 
 love was paramount to shame. 
 
 '^ Father," she said, ^^ I have deserved 
 
 reproof, but listen — why was I 
 
 «hew^a this beauteous world ? Why did 
 I witness the exstacy of Raymond's 
 bride, as blushing she gave her troth ; 
 why was I torn from the convent's 
 gloom to gaze for a few short hours on 
 joys and bliss I ne'er must share ? Often 
 sad and solitary, my heart, unsatisfied, 
 paced the cloist^ered aisle — fancy painted 
 illusive, imaginary pictures of things 
 and beings. Pardon me, good father, 
 let me proceed : — my aching bosom felt 
 a void ;" (the father crossed himself,) — 
 -' yes reverend father,'' she continued, 
 and the forms I drew, the world I pic- 
 tured, were but true. — It is a beauteous 
 world ; the forms are godlike ; — my 
 heart pants for alliance with my fellows 
 K 3
 
 202 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 —and oh, with such a mind and such 
 thoughts as these, am I fit to embrace 
 a Holy life ? — no ! to my cell I shall re- 
 turn ; but shall not long inhabit it ; dis- 
 appointment shall chase the bloom from 
 my cheek — my sunk eye may raise it- 
 self as if in prayer, but the world will 
 claim the sigh which to my sisters is 
 bestowed on Heaven." 
 
 '^ Daughter," interrupted the friar im- 
 patiently, " I'll hear no more." 
 
 '' Yet a few words more," she replied, 
 " embitter not the hours of liberty by 
 vain restraint : if I must return to my 
 lonely cell, let me in peace enjoy these 
 few short hours. The time will come 
 when I must submit to rules and peni- 
 tence. But let me now inhale the 
 breath of liberty." 
 
 " It is not solitude you dread, resumed 
 the friar ; ^' your heart is deceived by 
 the flattering tale ! and do I live to say 
 a votary of the Holy St. Clare has
 
 THE KISE AND FALL OF SOiMERSET. 203 
 
 opened her heart to the allurements and 
 charms of love !" 
 
 " You own then/' said Overbury, 
 ^^ that love has charms 1 And can you 
 have the barbarity to consign that beau- 
 teous flower to the darkness of monastic 
 gloom ? 'Twill fade, father, and pining 
 for the light of liberty will droop its 
 head and die ; but there is no time to 
 lose. Gabriella ! beloved of my soul, fear 
 nought, thine Overbury bids thee a kind 
 farewell ; father adieu. When next we 
 meet, we meet as friends I trust : I take 
 my leave, and Gabriella, sweetest, fare 
 thee well," said he, and in a whisper 
 he added to Antonia, ^^ I shall return 
 anon." 
 
 Scarcely had he left the cottage, when 
 Gabriella burst into tears and wrung 
 her hands in agony. " He's gone," she 
 said, " speak to me not good father ^ 
 alas ! alas ! he's gone ; oh, miserable that 
 I am ! Happy England ! there no con-
 
 204 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 vents gloom conceals the love sick maid, 
 but free as her land, she weds the man 
 she loves.' * The friar looked astonished, 
 Gabriella's grief affected him, and the 
 despair which marked her countenance 
 shot a pang to his heart, and he turned 
 away from her supplicating attitude. 
 
 Father Francis was aware that everj 
 future moment of the lady Gabriella's 
 life would now be tinged with that 
 gloomy discontent which the transitory 
 sight of the gay world, and the impas- 
 sioned sighs of a handsome lover were 
 calculated to produce. He loved Gabri- 
 ella with the tenderest affection, and he 
 was not unmoved at her passionate grief, 
 which she perceiving, threw herself at 
 his feet, and clasping his knees, suppli- 
 cated him to have pity on her ; '• save 
 me from a convent's gloom," she cried, 
 " save me from eternal misery." 
 
 ^* Rise Gabriella," replied the father, 
 " what I dare do for you, I will; but
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 
 
 mark me, daughter, you must forthwith 
 return with me to the castle,, and until 
 this hot-headed Englishman is gone 
 from this neighbourhood, you must again 
 retire to the convent. Xay Gabriella, 
 start not, ycu must submit to this, or 
 instantlv I will disclose to the sio:nor 
 your father, the particulars of your im- 
 prudent conduct." 
 
 A look from Antonia induced her tc 
 submit, and crossing her hands upon her 
 bosom, she bowed her head and fol- 
 lowed him. '* To-night," he said, '• at 
 the hour of seven, we shall look in upon 
 you again Antonia; daughter — follow 
 me.'' 
 
 The good monk thoughtfully bent his 
 steps to the house of her parents. Upon 
 his arrival, he briefly told her Father 
 (and that was all that was necessary for 
 him to do) that the lady Gabriella would 
 that evening return to her convent. 
 This news was received with indiffer-
 
 206 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 «nce by every member of the family, 
 except her brother and his bride : they 
 lamented the seclusion to which she was 
 consigned, and, with a sigh and a tear, 
 the two ladies parted. From her father 
 and mother she received a cold farewell, 
 with a promise that when she took the 
 veil, the ceremony should be attended 
 by every member of her family, and 
 nothing should be wanting to make the 
 spectacle imposing. Gabriella listened 
 with feelings of disgust to this cold fare- 
 well, and having joined father Francis, 
 who waited for her in the hall, they bent 
 their steps to Antonia's cottage. 
 
 Overbury had in the mean time hasten- 
 ed to his home and procured a peasant's 
 dress for Gabriella. He took also the 
 precaution to equip himself in a rustic 
 tunic, the better to elude discovery, and 
 he arrived at the cottage considerably 
 before father Francis and the fair Gabri^ 
 ella. Impatience on Overbury's part
 
 THL RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 20T 
 
 marked the moments as they flew, and 
 he awaited the approach of his mistress 
 with a degree of suspense that bordered 
 on distraction. At length, however, the 
 monk and his charge arrived at the cot- 
 tage of Antonia. 
 
 " Here, reverend father," said the 
 lady Gabriella, " here I must stop ; in 
 going to my parents' house, I obeyed 
 you ; in remaining here for a space you 
 will confer on me an obligation." 
 
 " But, daughter, this perverseness ill 
 accords with your duty," replied the 
 monk, sorrow evidently choking his 
 words as he spoke. 
 
 " My fate," interrupted Gabriella, 
 " is fixed — I cannot, will not go to 
 the monastery, but to perish the victim 
 ot a passion I cannot conquer. — Let 
 me beseech you to go on and leave me 
 to whatever time has in store for me. I 
 may be unfortunate in the world, but I 
 shall never be unhappy ; yea, if I should
 
 SOS BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR^ 
 
 be unhappy, I will not be miserable ; 
 and if misfortune should heap upon me 
 every misery mortals erst endured, I 
 shall not be the victim of cloistered de- 
 spair. — Oh! no. 
 
 " Daughter," rejoined the monk, 
 *^ thou judgest better of the w^orld than 
 it will of thee, if thou takest this false, 
 this ruinous step. — T implore you to 
 consider of it well — your friends, where 
 are they, if you follow this cavaliero ? 
 your home, nowhere, save on the waste 
 or in the mysterious alley of some 
 crowded city ; yourself, what then will 
 you be ? — oh, daughter, daughter, think 
 before it be too late." 
 
 *^ All that you have urged," replied 
 Gabriella," my own mind scanned. — But 
 whom do I see. — Ah ! 'tis he, tis he." 
 
 '^ Daughter, if thy passion overreach 
 thy duty, thus, learn at least what 
 thou owest to me," said father Francis, 
 in kindly accents — " If thou hast no
 
 tJiE r!se and fall of somerset. ^09 
 
 feeling for thyself, have some for my 
 grey hairs and aged limbs — but no, thy 
 bearing shews me thou carest for no 
 one's peace, not even thine own, and 
 in despite of thy best friend, thy reli- 
 gion, and thy God, thou art hurrying 
 to cast thyself away on a man we know 
 nothing of. — Oh, my child, my child ! 
 
 The altered tones of the monk as he 
 spake, terrified Gabriella for a moment ; 
 the voice of kindness with which he 
 began to address her was suddenly 
 changed into that of entreaty, and, 
 lastly, into that of authority. As he 
 accused her of irreligious neglect, his 
 voice assumed the tones of contempt 
 and indignation ; but in conclusion it 
 sunk into the softened accents of lamen- 
 tation and distress. 
 
 At this moment O verbury approached 
 and seized Gabriella's hand — Father 
 Francis started back as if horror struck,
 
 210 BLIGHTED ambition; Ott) 
 
 for he did not at the first glance recog- 
 nize him in the peasant's dress; but 
 recovering from his surprise, he ad- 
 vanced boldly and separated the hands 
 of his novice and her gallant. Over- 
 bury now proceeded to argue with him, 
 and Gabriella to implore his pity. The 
 language of the one was irresistible, that 
 of the other incontrovertible ; for na- 
 ture dictated the sentiments to be ex- 
 pressed, and passion clothed them in 
 words which were new to the monk's 
 ear. He listened, hesitated, and doubted. 
 His inward cogitations, as to the dis- 
 grace of his being accessary to the flight 
 of a novice, were strongly marked in 
 his countenance, and he repeatedly 
 resolved not to acquiesce ; but at length, 
 completely overpowered by the united 
 reasonings, promises, threats, vows, 
 tears, and prayers of the unhappy be- 
 ings, who caused him all this sorrow,
 
 TWe rise and fall of somekset. 211 
 
 he consented to accompany them, as 
 the only means of effecting their safe 
 escape. 
 
 Father Francis was a rigid discipli^ 
 narian in all that belonged to his order; 
 its rule he had never infringed till 
 accident brought him into the presence 
 of Overbury; but the old man loved 
 Gabriella with doting fondness ; she 
 appeared in his eyes so pure and 
 holy, that every action of her life was 
 the practice of a virtue, and every word 
 from her lips the angelic truth of an 
 immortal spirit. Viewed in this light 
 by the pious monk, need we wonder 
 that she succeeded in persuading him 
 to be accessary in a crime against the 
 rule of his order and the natural good 
 sense of his cultivated understanding? 
 Let us turn, however, from the contem- 
 plation of his frailties to what was pass- 
 ing before him ; let us listen to what 
 was spoken within his hearing, when
 
 121^ BLIGHTED AMBITIOK; Ott> 
 
 his love for Gabriella, and not his duty^ 
 yielded fatal consent to the reasonings 
 of the impassioned lovers. 
 
 Father Francis had no sooner signi- 
 l^ed his determination to accompany 
 them, as the only means of effecting 
 their escape, than Overbury, in the 
 triumph of his soul, turned rounds seized 
 the monk's hand, and exclaimed, 
 ^^ Good, Father, — 'tis well thou yieldest 
 to Nature's laws ; for by my troth, if 
 thou hadst not, the means of compelling 
 thee were not wanting. Seest thou that 
 grove, which skirts the margin of the 
 stream to the right ? — there I've con- 
 cealed my power." 
 
 " What^ wouldst thou have set upon 
 me with thy bravoes ?" asked the 
 trembling monk. " That were, indeed, 
 the summit of thy fault, son." 
 
 " Peace, gentle father, peace," ex- 
 claimed Gabriella. " But I meant no 
 more, father, than to have detained
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 213 
 
 thee here/' continued Overbuiy, " while 
 this fair saint and I make good our 
 escape to England. Now, however^ 
 that thou yieldest to our purpose, thou 
 must complete thy share of this day's 
 enterprize by procuring shelter and 
 concealment for us in a neighbouring 
 town. We move not one footstep till 
 I am assured of thy truth to the lady 
 Gabriella in this instance also ; when 
 I am therein certified, he that would 
 harm thee shall pass through my body 
 to do it," 
 
 " I have, it is true, relations distant 
 some two leagues from this spot," replied 
 father Francis, " and under their roof 
 Gabriella might be safe ; but there's a 
 difficulty in reaching that refuge," 
 
 ^' Assure me there is a safe retreat 
 for us," said Overbury, "and I will 
 undertake to surmount the difficulties 
 which may oppose our course." 
 
 The monk pledged himself to this
 
 214 BLIGIITKD AMBn ION ; OR, 
 
 demand, and Overbury instantly ex- 
 hibited a peasant's dress, in which he 
 purposed to array Gabriella. Antonia, 
 with an officious zeal, hastened to do 
 the duties of lady's maid, and the party 
 were soon on their way to the place 
 the monk had alluded to. • 
 
 But father Francis had still virtue 
 sufficient left to act the part of priest, 
 though not that of the friend to Gabri- 
 ella. As soon, therefore, as he secured 
 the fugitives in their retreat, as a condi- 
 tion of his own secrecy, he insisted on 
 uniting them in the holy bands of matri- 
 mony ; and with this proposal Overbury 
 immediately complied, as from several 
 mental reservations he looked upon the 
 ceremony little better than a nullity ; but 
 as he really loved Gabriella, and as, 
 moreover, this instance of apparent duty 
 on his part, was to reconcile the old 
 priest entirely to the project of the elope- 
 ment, he wished of all things to have the
 
 THE KISL AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 215 
 
 marriage rites performed without delay. 
 
 Father Francis having thus united his 
 headstrong novice in matrimony, re- 
 turned to her parents, and in brief speech 
 said *^ the lady Gabriella had been car- 
 ried off from the hut of Antonia by 
 banditti, where he had left her for a 
 space, and no tidings of their flight had 
 been obtained, though he had inquired 
 far and near." 
 
 This news spread dismay in the fa- 
 mily, and parties of the neighbours were 
 dispatched in ail directions, to discover 
 the fate of Gabriella, but their pursuit 
 was unav^ailing ; hopes were, however, 
 entertained that she might be carried 
 to some retreat of those marauders who 
 infest the Apennines, and, that when a 
 large ransom was offered for her release, 
 she might again be restored to her af- 
 flicted family. Father Francis in the 
 mean time obtained leave to make a
 
 216 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 pilgrimage to our lady of Loretto. But 
 who shall paint the dismay at the con- 
 vent on the first news of Gabriella's 
 elopement ? Time however, threw its 
 veil over these events^ Gabriella was 
 forgotten by the sisterhood, and her loss 
 was mourned at the home of her in- 
 fancy. She and Overbury having been 
 concealed for a fortnight in the re- 
 fuge the monk provided for them, at 
 length travelled as Savoyards through 
 the intermediate countries between Mi- 
 lan and Frankfort on the Rhine, where 
 they halted for some time, and then 
 proceeded to Holland, from whence 
 they obtained a passage to England, 
 
 With the residence of Gabriella in 
 London, Laurency was well acquainted, 
 as he had come over from Holland in 
 the same vessel with her and Overbury. 
 When, therefore, he found himself 
 caught in the toils he had been laying
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 21T 
 
 to ensnare others, his first business on 
 leaving Overbury, and before he pro- 
 ceeded to the Lord Cecil, was to send 
 an anonymous billet to Gabriella, in- 
 forming her that Overbury was involv^ed 
 with Raleigh and the Lords Cobham 
 and Grey, in a conspiracy, w^hich would 
 ev^entually affect his life. The moment 
 he entered her lodgings, which were in 
 a cottage in Holborn, he found her dis- 
 tressed beyond measure, from the tid- 
 ings of the billet. In vain did Overbury 
 strive to assuage her grief, by assuring 
 her he could not possibly be implicated, 
 and that none but an enemy could have 
 sent her that note ; and as he had used 
 the utmost secrecy in regard to Gabri- 
 ella, even in London, his suspicions 
 immediately fell upon Lawrency. 
 
 '* I will go and find him out," he 
 exclaimed, " and plunge this rapier in 
 his heart, but he shall come here and 
 contradict his lies." 
 
 VOL. I. u
 
 ^' Oh ! no, leave me not," cried Ga» 
 briella — '- I shall be miserable beyond 
 all distress_> if you quit me — the only 
 proof I can have of your love for me^ 
 of your entire innocence of all conspi- 
 racy, will be in your remaining here by 
 me — grant me this, or I instantly go to 
 the Count Aremberg, or the Marquis 
 de Beaumont, and seek out the truth of 
 all this horrible plot." 
 
 " No, not for worlds shall you go near 
 either of these noblemen, " replied 
 Overbury ; " and dearest Gabriella, I 
 shall prove to you I love you more 
 than all the honour I could gain by dis- 
 closing this plot, and will therefore 
 remain here with you, till that rascal 
 Lawrency shall himself reveal it ; for I 
 clearly perceive the villain has the 
 vantage ground of me."
 
 THE KISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 219 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Bold Nimrod first the lion's trophies wore, 
 
 The panther bound, and lancM the bristling boar; 
 
 He taught to turn the hare, to bay the deer, 
 
 And wheel the courser in his mad career. 
 
 Ah ! had he there restrained his tyrant hand! 
 
 Let me, ye pow'rs, an humbler wreaih demand : 
 
 No pomps I ask, \yhich crowns and sceptres yield ; 
 
 No dang'rous laurels in the dusty field : 
 
 Fast by the forest, and the limpid spring, 
 
 Give me the warfare of the woods to sing. 
 
 To breed my whelps, and healthful press the game, 
 
 A mean, inglorious, but a guiltless name. 
 
 THt GilARDI^N, NO. 125. 
 
 One of the most popular acts of the 
 new King, was his protection to the son 
 of the late Earl of Essex, who had been 
 privately beheaded in the Tower. Es- 
 L 2
 
 220 
 
 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 sex was brave, generous, affable, inca- 
 pable of disguising his own sentiments^ 
 or of misrepresenting those of others, 
 and he possessed the rare felicity of being 
 at once the favourite of Elizabeth, and 
 the darling of her people. This nobleman 
 was the son of Sir Walter Devereux, 
 Viscount of Hereford, and Earl of Es- 
 sex ; and, had he obeyed the dying com- 
 mand of his father, he might have conti- 
 nued in the enjoyment of every happiness 
 in his retirement at Anglesey ; but he was 
 drawn thence by the Earl of Leicester, 
 by whose faction he was betrayed to 
 destruction ; and he bequeathed to the 
 youth, of whom we are about to speak, 
 all the disabilities which are the inheri- 
 tance of a traitor's son and heir. 
 
 The first circumstance of the early 
 life of Robert Devereux, (for so at pre- 
 sent we shall call this unfortunate young 
 nobleman) which excited the curiosity 
 of James to see him, was of a nature 
 sufficiently well calculated to work on
 
 tHE RTSE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. '221 
 
 the fancy and religious prejudices of a 
 prince, who had Vr^ritten a learned para- 
 phrase upon the revelation of the apostle 
 St. John. The very same hour, and, 
 (as it is believed) on the very same mi- 
 nute that his father was beheaded pri- 
 vately in the Tower, young Essex, then 
 a scholar in Eton College, did suddenly 
 and distractedly, leap out of his bed, 
 where he had been fast asleep, and to 
 the amazement of all, cried out '^ that 
 his father was killed" — ^' his father was 
 dead." This remarkable, and, as it is 
 termed in the chronicles of the times, 
 ^^ most wonderful," anecdote came to 
 James's ears, and on his arriv^al at 
 Theobalds, he ordered young Essex to 
 be brought into his presence. # 
 
 * There was also another reason for the King's 
 partiality to young Devereux. The late Earl of 
 Essex had been the friend of James, who sent as 
 ^imbassadors, Mar and Kinlos , to save, if possible,
 
 222 BLIGHTED AMUITION ; OU, 
 
 James was himself a father and a nmn 
 of peace ; he had besides a sqii nearly of 
 the same age with Robert Devereux, 
 who was now looked upon with more 
 than ordinary observance from the pre- 
 sage he gave of the sad news which was 
 brought to him on the morning that 
 followed his father's execution. Shocked 
 as the King's humane mind was, that 
 Essex had too severe a trial, and that 
 his life had been made a sacrifice to the 
 ambition of a faction, he restored this 
 young earl his father's titles and estate, 
 and was pleased to make him the com- 
 panion of his eldest son Prince Henry, 
 who soon became more nearlv allied to 
 
 the- gallant Essex's head fiora the axe, but the royal 
 messengers arrived too late. This was, perhaps, more 
 fortunate than otherwise, for the rash unthinking 
 Earl had avov/edly raised his standard in James's 
 favour, and his ministers were by the Earl's prema- 
 ture death enabled to turn into congratulations their 
 intend edremonstrances.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SO!ViERSET. 2^S 
 
 Jiirn in affection than in years. Nor is 
 this a solitary instance of James's kind- 
 ness to the orphan ; his conduct to the 
 five children of Lenox, was equally pa- 
 rental and affectionate ; he sent for them 
 from France, and besides loading the 
 two sons with honours, he married one 
 daughter to Huntley, Earl of Mar, and 
 the third might have had as respectable 
 an alliance, but she chose a monastery. 
 
 The Queen too, shewed an uncom- 
 mon^interest in the youthful Earl, and 
 she presented him with a favourite hun- 
 ter, that he might accompany Prince 
 Henry in his sports. 
 
 It happened opportunely, that on the 
 morning when Essex was brought into 
 the King's presence, his Majesty was 
 about to enter upon the delights of the 
 chase, of w^hich he w^as uncommonly 
 fond, and Essex, though hardly equal 
 to its fatigues, was given in charge of 
 Philip Herbert, an experienced sports-
 
 '224 BLIGHTED AMBITION 
 
 man, who attended abo upon Prince 
 Henry. The King, on this occasion, 
 wore a green dress, with a feather in his 
 hat, and a horn by his side ; but James 
 was a man of pastime, and by making it 
 the chief business of his life, he shewed 
 much frivolity of mind. Yet, 'twere 
 w^rong, perhaps, to charge upon this 
 King what is the usual occupation of 
 the great bulk of those who labour not 
 mechanically for the necessaries, or 
 even a few of the luxuries of life. The 
 sports of the field give elasticity to the 
 mind and strength to the body ; the 
 application of a vigorous mind to one 
 pursuit, without any variance, gene- 
 rates madness : and the midnight revel, 
 or the gaming table, enfeeble both the 
 body and the mind. The King of 
 England, unlike his ancestors, believed 
 not that the sports and amusements of 
 the chase and the lake added strength 
 and agility to the wheels of state
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 225 
 
 mechanism, while they had a direct 
 tendency towards utility ; but he was 
 nevertheless a sportsman, and on this 
 day he took a peculiar pleasure in his 
 bow and arrow. 
 
 The properties of both he explained 
 in part to young E>ssex, leaving his son 
 Henry to display his knowledge as well 
 as his skill of these weapons : and 
 Henry was an apt lad who had every 
 line of William the monk's book of 
 pastimes at his tongue's end. " On the 
 afternoon of Shrove Tuesdav," said he 
 to Essex, " we shall have cock fighting, 
 and every Friday in Lent, the Ludus 
 TroJ6e ; and sea battles during the 
 Easter holidays; and tennis and quin- 
 tan ; and at Newington Butts, our 
 archery ; the parish clerks and the 
 players may amuse my father and the 
 Queen with the Creation of the world, 
 ' interludes,' and ' masques;' for us 
 Essex, we will none of their mummery," 
 L 3
 
 226 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 The youthful nobleman listened with 
 admiration as Prince Henry went on 
 describing the quahties of their bows, 
 those arms for boys, for which a provi- 
 sion was made among the articles of 
 benefaction, in the hospitals of Edward 
 VI. " The best bows," said Henry, 
 " are made of yew — of the yew trees 
 planted in church yards. — How it thrives 
 there, better than in other places, the 
 King, my father, who is a great clerk, 
 can perhaps tell us — and then, again, 
 only folks of gentle blood can shoot 
 with a yew bow." 
 
 Here, however, the Prince was 
 wrong; he had acquired sufficient know- 
 ledge of the English laws to know that 
 rustics and mechanics could not use yew 
 bows ; but the words of the statute of 
 Henry VIII. respecting archery, are 
 as obvious as they are singular. " No 
 person under seventeen years, except 
 he, or his father or mother, have lands
 
 THK RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 22? 
 
 or tenements to the yearly value of ten 
 pounds, or be worth in value or move- 
 ables, the sum of forty marks sterling, 
 shall shoot with any bow of yew." 
 
 Prince Henry knew, however, the 
 latter part of the statute perfectly well, 
 as he proceeded to instruct his pupil, that 
 *^ he should have the best bow in his 
 archery, after the feast of our lady, 
 and," added he, ^^ none can buy a bow 
 till then under a penalty of six shillings 
 and eight-pence." 
 
 '^ I think it is very strange," said 
 Essex, '^ that the church-yard, which 
 receives the dead, should furnish the 
 yew wood to keep it green." 
 
 " Pooh, lad, every body may have a 
 bow of mean price," interrupted the 
 prince, " for every bowyer for every 
 bow that he maketh of yew, makes four 
 other bows, meet to shoot with, of elm, 
 witch hazel, ash, or other wood apt for 
 the same."
 
 228 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 '' Then I would call these bows ordi- 
 naire, such as might feed the field of 
 battle with its dead," said Essex. 
 
 ^' A good thought and a wanton," ex- 
 claimed Prince Henry, ^' and I wish all 
 my father's people would buy elk bows, 
 elk 's a stronger wood than yew, lad, 
 and it 's more pliant than the common 
 yew. — There's a staggard, lookye how 
 my elk bow string twangs," and saying 
 so, he let fly a bolt at the unlucky buck ; 
 " I hit him, but, body of Wolsey, my 
 bolt slanted across his antlers — yet he's 
 down." 
 
 " A plague on the ground," cried 
 Herbert, " it was that caused your High- 
 ness miss him, look ye, Prince Henry, 
 this is the aim, this, this." 
 
 *^ Then Herbert, you shall have my 
 bow," said Henry, " its a bow of yew 
 of the tax called elk, and no bowyer 
 puts such to sale to any of the King's 
 subjects above the price of three and
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. i>2^ 
 
 four pence, under a penalty of twenty 
 shillings for every bow sold above that 
 money." 
 
 " My certies, your Royal Highness 
 is as well skilled in buying as Archy 
 Armstrong in fooling/' said Herbert, 
 adding, '' I am no star-gazer, but weTl 
 hae a storm ere the day's down — Pugh 
 — hot work this — I would that I had a 
 cup of dagger ale, for by Gog's bones, 
 my throat is like the mouth of a cannon 
 that's been shot thrice in the minute." 
 
 How far and with what nonsense 
 Philip Herbert would have proceeded, it 
 is impossible to say, but he was cut short 
 in his unmeaning discourse, by the ap- 
 pearance of another party of sportsmen. 
 These proved to be the Lord de la 
 Zouch, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and some descendants of four barons 
 vrho had signed magna gharta. The 
 royal party was saluted by the other,
 
 S30 BLIGHTED ambition; ou, 
 
 the King received the homage of hij* 
 subjects, and the whole field of sports- 
 men joined in one company. 
 
 " Look ye, prince Henry," said Her- 
 bert, ^' here's the rascal hart's slot, long- 
 heeled and broad — Look ye — theve the 
 fellow made into his entry — look ye, 
 what bows he hath over stridden to get 
 into his gallery; he's gone in stiff and 
 stately, he's none of your young creep- 
 ing fellows as he passes into his har- 
 bour ; we must unharbour him. — So ho ! 
 so ho ! huntsman — blow a re cheat to the 
 hounds to encourage them — we must 
 not let them overshoot the chase. — Gar- 
 dez vous, gardez, you'll pass within a 
 yard of the brute in his lair, and none of 
 your dogs vent him — gardez, I say gar dez. 
 — Ah! the hounds fall to change, put 
 them to the right slot and view, until 
 they have roused and found him again. 
 —Gog's bones plunge into the thicket
 
 THE RISE Ax\D FALL OF SOiMERSET. 23l 
 
 man, and make him break herd — a 
 plague on your young dogs that will 
 overshoot their game — Take thee a 
 couple of leashes of old hounds, that 
 will hunt leisurely and fearfully, and 
 dive in, and let the dogs challenge — ■ 
 hark. Spanker, hark ! hark, Killbuek, 
 hark! hark, Tracer, hark!" 
 
 ^^ A pest on your dogs," cried Prince 
 Henry, by all the vert and venison in 
 this chase, if a ranger don't give us slot 
 and view of this rascal hart soon, I 
 would he were stuffed with its fewmets 
 — phugh, hoc ! there 's a hare. 
 Inter quadrupedes gloria prima lepus^ 
 *' Ostrager, Ostrager, ride, ride ; — un- 
 hood your goshawk ; — in the length of 
 a bow shot, let it fly — bravo, bravo — 
 ware, hawk, ware !" — And in the short 
 space that intervened between Prince 
 Henry's " pest on your dogs," and his 
 '' ware, hawk, ware !" the forester had 
 unharboured the hart, and the falconer
 
 S32 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 had thrown his hawk off his fist ; the 
 hawk had trussed the unfortunate hare, 
 and was rewarded with its heart, and the 
 field cry, " ware," " ware," " ware" 
 — the common signal for a hawk to pray 
 on its quarry. 
 
 The chase was now resumed with 
 increased speed, but the hart soon took 
 soil, whereupon Herbert cried in the 
 language of the old rule, 
 
 " He that will his chase find, 
 Let him first try up the river, 
 And down the wind." 
 
 The hounds challenged but a yard above 
 the poor animal's going into the water ; 
 but there was much confusion among 
 the sportsmen respecting the application 
 of the proverb. At length Herbert 
 espied the poor creature's nose in the 
 middle of the stream, for in taking soil, 
 it is the nature of the hart to cover him- 
 self wholly as it were under the water.
 
 lilE RISE AND FALL OF SOMEKSKT. 233 
 
 Man and horse plunged in as they were 
 able, and the hounds followed ; the 
 royal party and the Archbishop cantered 
 along the bank of the river till the hart 
 landed, when the tired animal, being 
 almost spent, ran stiff, high and lam- 
 perking. 
 
 " There he goes," cried Herbert, 
 " black at the mouth, and dry without 
 foam. Ah ! the wretch ; look at his 
 slot, now his claws are close together, 
 now does he open them wide, making 
 great glidings, following the beaten 
 paths without doublings ; there he goefi 
 along that ditch side looking for a 
 gap, having not strength to leap it 
 otherwise." 
 
 But in a minute the hounds were at 
 fault, the game was out of sight, and 
 not a dog would stir his foot. The 
 huntsmen, the king, the archbishop, all 
 were amazed ; at last, by a great deal 
 of examination, there fell suspicion on
 
 234 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OU^ 
 
 a great white thorn, surrounded by nei- 
 ther vert, as a likely harbour. The arch- 
 bishop discovered the hart, perched on 
 the boughs of the thorn, and Prince 
 Henry darted among the shrubs to 
 thrust him through with his spear, while 
 Herbert expended '^ all the breath in 
 bis body/' as he himself said, '' in wind- 
 ing the mort of the beast." 
 
 But Essex, by some unlucky accident, 
 was not in at the death ; and the King, 
 who wished that his young friend might 
 take say, felt a little mortified. 
 " Oh ! never mind, your Highness," said 
 Herbert, " we '11 lease the young noble 
 first, and then teach him to take say." 
 
 Accordingly, as soon as Essex came 
 in, Prince Henry and Herbert, in con- 
 junction with an old huntsman, laid him 
 across a horse- saddle, and with a pair of 
 dog couples, gave him " ten pounds 
 and a purse," the penalty of coming 
 in too late at the mort ; or, in fact, the
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 236 
 
 initiation of a young sportman. The ten 
 pounds paid by Flerbert, in the shape of 
 ten stripes, were cutting enough, but 
 the purse of the eleventh was as bad 
 as the other ten put together. This 
 done in perfect good humour, Herbert 
 placed his pupil close to the left shoulder 
 of the deer, v/hile some held the fore 
 legs, and the huntsman drawing down 
 the parts, Essex was instructed to 
 bring his knife leisurely along the 
 middle of the belly, beginning near the 
 brisket, to discover how deep the fat 
 was. The huntsman, who broke the 
 deer, then rewarded the hounds. Then 
 he presented Essex with a drawn dag- 
 ger, to cut off the head ; and the 
 whole ceremony was concluded with 
 a treble mort blown by Herbert, and 
 a whole recheat in consort, by all that 
 had horns. 
 
 The archbishop now quitted the royal 
 party, and the King pursued the sport
 
 23G BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OK, 
 
 for about two hours longer. His grace 
 was, however, extremely unfortuncite in 
 the chase this day ; for he had not left 
 the company of his majesty half an 
 hour, when shooting at a rascal deer 
 with his cross bow, the keeper coming 
 up unwarily too forward, was struck 
 with the arrow under the left arm, and 
 died in about an hour after. The good 
 prelate's grief w^as insupportable for a 
 time, and he retired to his alms houses 
 at Guilford, till the royal will should 
 be known respecting this misfortune. 
 He endowed the wife of the keeper and 
 her children with an estate ; but the 
 accident gave occasion for much scandal 
 among the disaffected upon religious 
 matters ; and some of the rigid puritans 
 cried " blood for blood." But to return 
 to his majesty's hunting party. 
 
 When the King had been about an 
 hour longer in the field, the storm, of 
 which Philip Herbert had prophesied,
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 237 
 
 began to shew itself, and the royal party 
 were fain to seek shelter where they 
 could. James, without any ceremony, 
 entered a cottage on the skirts of the 
 forest, and saluted the dame in a style of 
 unwonted frankness. 
 
 " Peakish grange this, for gentles to 
 house them in," said Herbert. 
 
 '^ Sit thee down, my master," quoth the 
 dame, '• here thou shalt have such wel- 
 come as the place and I can afford ; thou 
 and thy master shall eat brown bread, 
 whig, bacon, curds, and milk, such as thou 
 ne'er tasted, for sweetness and richness." 
 
 " Prithee dame trouble not thyself," 
 said the King, " we are part of his ma- 
 jesty's suite that broke off in the chase." 
 
 *' Take thee this cushion made of lists, 
 my master, and sit thee beside that jolly 
 lord in a poor stool half backed with a 
 hoop." 
 
 " Marry but thou art a jolly old 
 dame," said Herbert, " where hast thou 
 sent thy daughter dame ?"
 
 238 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 '^ Where hast thou sent thy daugh- 
 ter ?" echoed the old woman — " Marry, 
 come up, but T wish my bread were 
 wheat, and my whig w^ere perry. Where 
 hast thou sent thy daughter, gramercie ! 
 There's bacon wi' as thin a streak o' red 
 in it, as the blood o' Bancroft. But, I 
 wish the bacon were beef, and that the 
 milk and curds were cream, to make 
 ye merry my masters. But here comes 
 the captain, my master, and he is the. 
 man who can cast you a nativity as gleg 
 as ere a palmister between the Thames 
 and the Tweed." 
 
 As the woman spoke these words, a 
 tall gaunt fellow, with a bushy head of 
 hair, a thick beard, small black eyes, 
 darker even than his jet black hair and 
 beard, and of an olive coiiiplexion, en- 
 tered the cottage. The royal party, 
 who had not deigned to touch the hos- 
 pitable fare that the poor woman ar- 
 ranged with tolerable neatness on her 
 board, now started from their seats, and
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 23^ 
 
 Philip Herbert demanded of the person 
 who entered, who and what he was? 
 
 " Who am I ?*' said the man, but in- 
 stantly glancing around the hut, which 
 was very ample though indifferently 
 lighted, his eye caught that of the King 
 — the tone of his voice sunk from the 
 boldness it had assumed, and walking 
 up to his Majesty, the captain took 
 hold of his hand and said : — 
 
 Bless me/floy masters, the old and the young, 
 from the gall of the heart and the stroke of the 
 
 tongue ; 
 With you lucky bird, I begin, let me see, 
 T aim at the best, and T trow you are he : 
 Here's some luck already, if I understand 
 The grounds of my art : here's a gentleman's hand. 
 
 Ill kiss it for hick sake ; you shall by this line, 
 Love a horse and a hound, but no part of a swine. 
 To hunt the brave stag, not so much for your food. 
 As the weal of your body and the health o' ^uur 
 blood.
 
 240 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 YouVe a man of good means, and have territories 
 
 store, 
 Both by sea and by land ; and were born, sir, for 
 
 more, 
 Which you like a lord, and the prince of your peace 
 Content with your havings, despise to encrease ; 
 You are no great wencher I see by your table. 
 Although your Mons Veneris says you are able : 
 Wiieiice he that conjectures your quality learns 
 You're an honest good man, and take care of your 
 
 bairns ; 
 Your mercury's bill too, a wdt doth betoken, 
 §ome book craft you have, and are pretty well spoken. 
 But stay, in your Jupiter's mount, what's here? 
 A king! a monarch ! what wonders appear! 
 High, bountiful, just ; a Jove for your parts, 
 A master of men, and that reign in their hearts, 
 
 " Avaunt, wizzard, avaunt," said the 
 King sternly, '^ thou dealest with Sa- 
 tan, and art witched" — 
 
 *' Nay, eat of my bread, and drink of my cap, 
 '* Then to horse without leaping store, aye or a 
 stirrup."
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 241 
 
 ^* God's death ! thou beggarly gyp* 
 ;5ey," said Herbert, " avaunt, or my faul- 
 chion cleaves thee in twain." 
 
 '' Though the whip be sold that shall 
 lash thy breech, bully courtier, the 
 blade's not welded that docks my hair — 
 Sib, Sib, Sib," called the fellow to his 
 dog, which instantly obeyed its master's 
 voice, and the woodland fortune-teller, 
 bolting out at the door, disappeared in 
 an instant. 
 
 " We're in the land of enchantment," 
 said the King, " let us begone — let the 
 devils be a' harried ;" and leaving the 
 homely dwelling of a being who really 
 meant the King no ill, James mounted 
 his horse in the midst of the storm, 
 and rode to a more genial place of 
 shelter. 
 
 VOL. r.
 
 242 BLIGHTED AMBITION : OR 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Tiiere's language in her eye ; her cheek, her lip. 
 Nay, her foot speaks ; her wanton spirits look out 
 At every joint and motive of her body. 
 O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue, 
 That give a coasting welcome ere it comes, 
 And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts 
 To every ticklish reader ! Set them down 
 For sluttish spoils of opportunity, 
 And daughters of the game. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 Of the young ladies who shone at 
 the court of James^ few excelled the 
 Lady Frances Howard^ daughter of the 
 Earl of Suffolk. This young lady had 
 been peculiarly noticed by Queen Anne, 
 and, in the parties of juvenile courtiers 
 that flirted around Prince Henry, none 
 received more attention than the Lady
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 243 
 
 Frances. The King himself delighted 
 to partake occasionally in the innocent 
 amusements of the young nobility who 
 surrounded the Prince ; and he could 
 plainly see that it would be for the in- 
 terest of young Essex to be married to 
 the Lady Frances Howard. By this al- 
 liance, the pacific monarch hoped that 
 a perfect reconciliation might be made 
 in all things between the families of 
 Devereux and Howard. Accordingly, 
 he proposed the match to the Earl of 
 Suffolk, who referred his Majesty to 
 the Countess : — James took the refe- 
 rence of his minister in good part, and 
 went forthwith through with the busi- 
 ness^ a name sufficiently reasonable for 
 a political marriage. 
 
 " Cousin," quoth the King to the 
 Countess, " I've got a familiar to knock 
 on the Lady Frances' pillow." 
 
 '^ Indeed !" exclaimed the Countess ; 
 " and who is the cadds that your Ma- 
 M 2
 
 244 BLfGHTfeD AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 jesty proposes to disturb the sleep of 
 my daughter ?" 
 
 " Why^ looke-ye," replied James ; 
 " your Frankey, as transcendant in her 
 spirit as in her beauty, renders your 
 house now as populous as a confection- 
 ers shop, to which the gaudy wasps, no 
 less than the liquorish flies, make it 
 their business to resort, in hope of ob- 
 taining a lick of your Countess-ship's 
 honey- pot. — Now, Madam, I would lay 
 an embargo on the loose custom of 
 England, where she, that being inno- 
 cent, doth, by her light carriage, make 
 base symptoms appear in the world's 
 opinion. I would have all your young 
 lasses of seventeen in the land married ; 
 and all the gaudy butterflies amongst the 
 young men of nineteen, whose heads are 
 now a wool-gathering, I would have 
 them all to believe with me, that a wife 
 is a medicine both for strong and weak." 
 
 ^' So your Majesty has a lover at
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 245 
 
 hand for my child ?" said the Countess, 
 little disposed to encounter the argu- 
 mentative King. 
 
 " Truth is, Lady Suffolk," replied 
 James, " I have my eye upon young 
 Essex as a husband for the Lady Fran- 
 ces. But since we brook nothing well 
 that restraint ties us to, I must beseech 
 your ladyship, at your own conve- 
 niency, to break the matter to the 
 young lady." 
 
 *' But my Lord of Suffolk," rejoined 
 the Countess, " him I must consult. — 
 Children, my liege, are uncertain com- 
 forts, but certain troubles." 
 
 *' I pledge myself for my Lord of 
 Suffolk," added the King ; *' and since 
 the yoke of marriage had need be lined 
 with the softest stuff, and covered with 
 the richest outward conveniences, besides 
 confirming Essex in all his father's ho- 
 nours and possessions, the Lady Frances 
 shall not go to the altar an unendowed 
 beauty."
 
 246 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 *'But the Lady Frances and the Earl 
 of Essex, wife and husband, how can 
 that be?" asked the Countess. "He's 
 restored in blood ; true — but — " 
 
 " Hear me, hear me. Lady Suffolk," 
 interrupted the King — " I ask you to 
 wed your daughter to an honourable 
 person : — let her birth be as high as any 
 Howard, Essex comes of the Deve- 
 reux's, — well know I that honourable 
 persons, as is reported of the eagle's 
 feathers, in a bed, consume all not of 
 the same plume ; — but here there's no 
 lean honour like Pharaoh's kine, to de- 
 vour either one house or other." 
 
 "■ But consider the Lady Frances' age," 
 added the Countess; "she is much too 
 young : I would she were older, though 
 even now she be looked upon as the 
 sun ; but your Majesty must in the end 
 be the absolute master of her choice, 
 I presume." 
 
 "That, Lady Suffolk," replied the 
 King — " that is a privilege rather than
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 24? 
 
 a right, I enjoy. For Essex I will pre- 
 scribe ; and since you consider me abso- 
 lute, for the Lady Frances I will also 
 take this upon me. To-morrow I have 
 to beg you will allow me the privilege 
 of introducing my adopted boy to your 
 lovely daughter." 
 
 The Countess curtsied — the female 
 bow was not then in vogue, and apply- 
 ing her cat-call to her lips, she whistled 
 for Lady Frances's waiting-woman. 
 " Tell Lady Frances Howard the King 
 commands her presence forthwith," said 
 the Countess. 
 
 The woman took leave, with all due 
 obeisance, and in a few moments Lady 
 Frances, as gay as a peacock, and as 
 sprightly as a young fawn, came trip- 
 ping into the presence of the King and 
 her mother. James discoursed on books, 
 praised those printed in a small and 
 neat form, and professed a great dislike 
 to huge volumes.
 
 248 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 " I have just been reading one of 
 your Majesty's books," said the Lady 
 Frances pertly, " and it is not a small 
 book either, which made me wonder 
 how your Highness should know all you 
 wrote, and why you should take the 
 trouble to write all you imagined. But 
 I like books, yet I like company better. 
 The more I read from books, the less 
 I exercise my own wit. Now in a bril- 
 liant assembly — at a masque I was at 
 the other day, I found the converse of 
 gentles more a refiner of the spirit than 
 your books crammed with aphorisms, 
 stuffed with legal quillets, eked out per- 
 chance with crabbed logic, and some 
 flourishes of rhetoric resembling the 
 Lacedemonian thief " 
 
 '* Of a verity, Lady Frances, thouVt 
 no need of quotations in thy discourse/* 
 replied the King, somewhat piqued by 
 the tartness of the young lady's obser- 
 vations.
 
 THE RFSE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 249 
 
 ^* The King says right," rejoined the 
 Countess, " thouVt incurable, Franky, 
 in thy boldness : remember that though 
 neat wits, like fair ladies, may take a 
 pleasure in making communicable the 
 beauty of their parts, yet they both 
 appear most grateful when they are ob- 
 tained with struggling and blushing." 
 
 ^' Cheap and good, my lady mother ; 
 if I had the skill to choose," said Lady 
 Frances laughing. Then turning to the 
 King she asked, " Is not your Highness 
 afflicted to see the reward of wisdom 
 lavished on a fool ? Why, I'm in lead- 
 ing strings. Oh ! I wish I were a man, 
 I would be liquorish after fame, though 
 she doth carry a trumpet, that, for the 
 most part, congregateth more enemies 
 than friends." 
 
 '^ But there are situations in which 
 a lady may share fame," said the King. 
 
 " Indeed ! I would your Majesty 
 would now point me out one ; and, r§ 
 M 3
 
 250 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OH, 
 
 expedition doubles the benefit, grant, 
 if ever, this my courtesy at first 
 asking." 
 
 " What think you of the fame ac- 
 quired in matrimony ?" demanded the 
 King. 
 
 " Think !" replied Lady Frances, 
 *' that it is sometimes marred by mis- 
 carriages when the fickle voice of the 
 multitude manages a courtier as a 
 showman manages his properties and 
 puppets/' 
 
 " Remember, child," said the Countess 
 in the ear of her daughter, '' 'tis not 
 safe to divert your prince by a witty 
 answer, beyond all possibility of reply." 
 
 " Mercy on us, his Majesty began 
 it himself," retorted the arch coquette : 
 then addressing the King, she asked in 
 the sweetest accents, " will your High- 
 ness resolve whether it be more excus- 
 able to appear rich than wise at the pre- 
 judices of one in superlative power ?
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 261 
 
 For they say Henry Quatre's ears are 
 so continually softened by flattery, that 
 he bears with better temper a diminu- 
 tion of his treasury, which he looks 
 upon as below and without him^ than in 
 wit, handsomeness, and horsemanship.*' 
 
 " To-morrow, fair querist, I will 
 resolve thy interrogatory either myself 
 or by deputy," replied the King. " Now 
 I declare to thee. Lady Frances, thou 
 makest me but the copy of myself. 
 Come, give me thy hand. Nay, I will, 
 I shall have a buss, fair cousin — thy 
 humour makes us, like Solomon, do 
 things for which we're unable to render 
 a reason." 
 
 *' Now I'm satisfied," exclaimed the 
 blushing yet delighted Lady Frances; 
 " satisfied there is less danger in speak- 
 ing truth to a king than his minions.'* 
 
 "And I'm satisfied you'll be happy 
 on the morrow," said the King, '^so
 
 252 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 now adieu^ ma bonne Countess — adieu, 
 ma fille — to-morrow I shall see you 
 both at Theobalds." 
 
 The King immediately left Suffolk 
 House, and proceeded to White Hall^ 
 where his Majesty found the Prince 
 Henry and young Essex in high alterca- 
 tion. It seems that the Prince and 
 Essex had this morning been delighting 
 themselves with the exercise and plea- 
 sure of the tennis court, and they had 
 inadvertently stumbled upon a question 
 as to the origin of the word denoting 
 the game, — Prince Henry argued the 
 game was a French production ; Essex 
 that it had been imported into France, 
 and that the word tenez afforded i^o 
 incontrovertible evidence as to the GaU 
 lican original of the game. — " For the 
 holding," said Essex, " or keeping pos- 
 session of the ball is no part of the game, 
 but rather a circumstance casually
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 253 
 
 attending it, since during the perform- 
 ance the ball is in continual motion, iso 
 there can be no tenez at this juncture," 
 
 '' I tell thee, Essex,'* said the Prince 
 in a rage, '' the game is French ; in 
 French we call it Tennois : now look 
 ye, Sennois is a town of Champagne ; — 
 the balls were made there first — there 
 the game originated ; — change S into T, 
 which in the heat and exercise of the 
 game is likely enough, and you have 
 Sennois, Tennois, Tennis." 
 
 '^ A parley, or play," cried Essex ; 
 '' let's to our game, and leave dull critics 
 to their narrow circle ; for myself, I 
 like books, I like play — a mixed educa- 
 cation suits employment best." 
 
 " Devil bandy thy tongue, play away 
 then," exclaimed the Prince ; ^' I'll mix 
 frolic and study with any son of a 
 traitor." 
 
 '^ Son of a traitor ! saidst thou, Prince 
 Henry, — nay, then, take that," said
 
 254 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 Essex, almost choked with passion, as 
 he struck the Prince over the crown of 
 his head with his racket. 
 
 " My Lord of Essex ! your Highness ! 
 Hold ! hold ! This is unpardonable, 
 Essex," said Philip Herbert; "your 
 Highness is not hurt ?" added the offi- 
 cious attendant. But Prince Henry 
 had not yet recovered from the effects 
 of the blow ; he was stunned — he reeled 
 a pace or two but was caught by Her- 
 bert, and his first action was to put his 
 hand to his head. The skin was slightly 
 cut by the blow, and a few drops of 
 blood trickled down his face ; but in 
 other respects he received no injury. 
 Herbert railed against Essex, coaxed 
 the Prince, cursed the game, and wished 
 its inventor's head were as high as 
 Haman's. 
 
 Prince Henry, who now discovered 
 the blood dropping from his head, 
 wrested himself out of Herbert's grasp,
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 255 
 
 exclaiming " Have at you, Robert 
 Devereux !" aiming at the same time 
 a blow with his racket at the insulted 
 youth's head. But Essex hit the racket 
 out of Prince Henry's hand, and throw- 
 ing away his own at the same instant, 
 folded his arms upon his breast, and 
 stood mute, though his countenance ex- 
 pressed both sorrow and indignation. 
 Herbert again interposed with that 
 peculiar rudeness for which he was cha- 
 racterised, and insisted that the Prince 
 was wrong in casting into the teeth of 
 Essex the crime of his father, when at 
 the same time his Majesty had restored 
 the young lord to all his father's titles 
 and honours ; but at the same time no 
 language of his Highness's could justify 
 Essex in taking the law into his own 
 hand, and striking Prince Henry. The 
 Prince was again making up to Essex, 
 but Herbert placed himself between 
 them, and instead of continuing the
 
 256 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 altercation, hurried young Essex into 
 the palace of White Hall, followed by 
 Prince Henry ,whose rage abated none of 
 its force till the King himself appeared. 
 James heard the complaint of his son, 
 the defence of Essex, and the explana- 
 tion of Herbert, before he blamed or 
 commended either of the offenders, 
 " Henry," said the King, " this was not 
 well done. He who struck you now 
 in his own defence, will be sure with 
 more violent blows to strike your enemy 
 in times to come." And then turning 
 to Essex, the royal peace-maker added, 
 " As for you, Essex, nothing under 
 heaven could justify the assault. Let 
 me not see your face till to-morrow 
 afternoon you come to us at Theobald's ; 
 there we'll see what the flourish 
 of your youth can do in your own 
 defence ; fail not to obey us, and 
 we'll put your full fire and cou- 
 rage to the proof." Essex bowed and
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 25t 
 
 left the royal presence, while the youth- 
 ful Prince felt mortified at the usage he 
 had met with. 
 
 In the mean time the rumour of this 
 affair spread over the city in an hour, 
 and was aggravated with every circum- 
 stance of insult, atrocity, or courage. 
 At Suffolk House the tidings were an- 
 nounced with mysterious caution, and 
 created the greater solicitude by the 
 obscurity in which the facts were enve- 
 loped. By the arrival of Herbert, how- 
 ever, in the course of the afternoon the 
 whole truth was learned, and the young 
 Earl was pronounced a gallant of parts 
 befitting a prince. Whatever Herbert's 
 commission was, there seems little doubt 
 that he executed it to the letter, for 
 his description of Essex enchanted the 
 Lady Frances. 
 
 " I do like the Earl for that," said 
 the Lady Frances. " If the Prince be 
 such a turkev-cock as to stand and
 
 258 BLIGHTED AMBITION 
 
 pride himself no less in the sun and pros- 
 perities of the spring, than Nebuchad- 
 nezzar did on the battlements of his 
 palace, he will learn by times that the 
 sense of honour in the nobles of our 
 land brooks not the cruelty of unme- 
 rited insult." 
 
 '' But the plume of state/' said Her- 
 bert, when the young lady paused, "the 
 plume of state cannot be ruffled without 
 putting in disarray the feathers of the 
 nobility. This tiercel gentle, Essex, 
 would have a good pitch, at his first 
 stooping, and struck the faulcon, gentle 
 Prince Henry, and would have trussed 
 him, but that I, like a well-made sports- 
 man, pounced in and whooped the birds 
 down to my lure." 
 
 " And you did right, Herbert," said 
 the Countess, •' ill becomes it your tier- 
 cel gentle should now be permitted a 
 creance yard long to his leash." 
 
 '^ Ha ! my lady," interrupted Her-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 259 
 
 bert, '^ I hooded my birds, stroked them 
 gently on the wings, reclaimed my 
 hawks, manned them both, and as on 
 a perch brought them into the King's 
 presence. But adieu, the King's Ma- 
 jesty commanded Essex to be at Theo- 
 balds on the morrow, and there the 
 noble cavaliero is to enter the lists with 
 another combatant." 
 
 ^' And I hope he will be more success- 
 ful than to-day," quoth the Lady 
 Frances, 
 
 '' So do I," rejoined Herbert : '' I 
 hope he will." 
 
 " Hope," echoed the Lady Frances 
 laughing — " Hope is the false prophet of 
 Fortune when she intrudes as the medium 
 of distress upon the slippery embank- 
 ment that guards the tiirone. Let us 
 cheer Essex, my lady mother, by our 
 presence, and the sun-shine of as many 
 fair faces as we can bring in our train. 
 This will tempt the King to a charitable
 
 260 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; Ott, 
 
 judgment^ and it will go hard indeed if 
 we cannot bring merchandize enough 
 to recommend peace to Prince Henry.'' 
 
 "Agreed, my love," rejoined the 
 Countess ; " and do you, my gentle Her- 
 bert, convey to the King our duty and 
 our grief; but our hopes also, that his 
 royal Majesty's wishes of this morning 
 may to-morrow afternoon be all ful- 
 filled.'^ 
 
 Herbert again bowed, bade the Coun- 
 tess and her daughter adieu, and repaired 
 with all speed to the King, to whom 
 his communication was highly gratify- 
 ing. On the following day a large 
 party of distinguished characters w^ere 
 assembled at Theobalds, and among the 
 rest the personages who have figured 
 most conspicuously in this chapter. The 
 Queen received the Countess of Suffolk 
 and the lovely Lady Frances with her 
 accustomed affability, and the King 
 took young Essex by the hand as if
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 261 
 
 nothing had happened between him and 
 Prince Henry. The King then ad- 
 vanced towards the Queen, leading the 
 young nobleman with him, and there 
 in the most gracious and condescending 
 manner introduced the subject of the 
 match between the houses of Deve- 
 reux and Howard. Lady Frances for 
 a moment seemed to doubt she heard 
 the King speak ; but his Majesty's 
 praises of Essex's recreations, riding of 
 the great war-horse, running at the 
 ring, the exercise of arms, the de- 
 lights of hunting, hawking, and fishing,, 
 which were followed by loud and length- 
 ened commendations of his application 
 to study, the perusal of books that 
 yielded profit and amusement, though 
 all highly prized by Lady Frances, fell 
 short of the pleasure she derived from 
 gazing on the youthful nobleman who 
 had the courage to resent an insult 
 offered even by his Prince. This single
 
 262 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 act captivated her more than to hear 
 that he was generally first in at the 
 death of the stag, or when the falcon 
 on his wing was stooping to his prey. 
 The genius of honour seemed to have 
 taken up his residence in the person of 
 Essex, and the Lady Frances heard with 
 infinite pleasure the proposal of King 
 James, who in brief terms sought her 
 hand for the young Earl of Essex. 
 
 A few days sufficed for the courtship 
 of these minors, and in the mean time 
 the King of Denmark arrived in Eng- 
 land to visit his royal brother-in-law, 
 James. In the midst of the revels 
 which were given, the marriage cere- 
 mony of the young Earl of Essex with 
 the Lady Frances Howard was cele- 
 brated. The presents of plate and 
 jewels and other things given by the 
 noblemen of the court were valued 
 highly, but that which made it a good 
 marriage was the King's jointure, and
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 263 
 
 the presence of so many persons of con- 
 dition and royal bearing. The young 
 couple were entertained with a masque 
 in the evening, when the arrival of the 
 Queen of Sheba at Solomon'^ temple 
 was represented. In the banqueting- 
 room, and at its further end w^ere seated 
 their Majesties of England and Den- 
 mark, with Queen Anne between them ; 
 on the King of Denmark's left sat the 
 youthful bride ; on King James's right 
 hand sat the young bridegroom, and a 
 lady of the court enacted the Queen of 
 Sheba. 
 
 The Asiatic princess approached the 
 sovereigns, bearing in her hand most 
 precious gifts, but forgetting the steps 
 arising to the canopy, overset her cas- 
 kets on his Danish Majesty's doublet 
 and breeches, embellished by the bra- 
 guette. This mishap would of itself 
 have been matter of small moment, but 
 the representative of the eastern dame
 
 264 BLIGHTED ambition; OR, 
 
 fell at the Dane's feet. The hurry and 
 confusion occasioned by this disaster 
 may well be imagined ; however, his 
 Majesty got up, and would dance with 
 the Queen of Sheba. In this he was 
 equally unfortunate with Solomon's ad- 
 mirer, for of the good food and the 
 good liquor he had partaken that day, 
 his Majesty's steps in the dance bore 
 many irregular proofs. In good sooth, 
 the King stumbled and fell. Her Ma- 
 jesty of Sheba was thus relieved of his 
 boisterous mirth ; for what formerly 
 with the sousing he had received in the 
 overthrow of her cream, jelly, beve- 
 rage, cakes, spices, and other good mat- 
 ters, and now with the tumble in hum- 
 bling himself before her, the Dane was 
 fain to be carried away by the lacqueys 
 to an inner chamber, and laid on a bed 
 of state. 
 
 The next masque who appeared was 
 Hope, personified by a fair dame, who
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 265 
 
 did essay to speak, but wine rendered 
 her endeavours vain, so that she with- 
 drew, hoping the King would excuse 
 her brevity. Faith was then all alone, 
 for I am certain she was not joined to 
 good works, as she left the court in a 
 staggering condition. Charity came to 
 the King's feet, and seemed to cover in 
 the dust a multitude of sins her sisters 
 had committed. She endeavoured, 
 however, in some sort to make obei- 
 sance, and brought gifts, but said she 
 would return home again, as there was 
 no gift which heaven had not already 
 given his Majesty. Next came Victory, 
 in bright armour, and she presented a 
 rich sword to the King, who did not 
 accept it, but put it by with one hand. 
 But though Victory, by a strange med- 
 ley of versification, endeavoured to 
 make suit to the King, she did not 
 triumph long, for after much lamentable 
 utterance, she was led away like a silly 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 266 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 captive, and laid to sleep on the outer 
 steps of the antichamber. Her com- 
 panions, Hope, Faith, and Charity, had 
 contrived to stroll down to an under 
 charuber, where they slept off the para- 
 disiacal joys of intoxication before the 
 god of day shed sufficient light to ques- 
 tion their sobriety. Peace now entered, 
 and strove to get foremost to the King ; 
 but I grieve to tell the great wrath she 
 discovered to her attendants ; for, con- 
 trary to her pretensions to all sem- 
 blance in her dress, she rudely made 
 v\'ar with her olive branch, and laid 
 heavily upon the pates of those who 
 opposed her advance. 
 
 These may appear strange pagean- 
 tries to the reader who has perused the 
 prudish sobriety of Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign. But the picture is real — the 
 great ladies went well masqued, and if 
 they could not conceal their failings, 
 contrived at least to have the show of
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 267 
 
 modesty exhibited by concealing their 
 countenances. It was pleasant to enter 
 into all the gorgeous revels of Theo- 
 balds, where James rivalled his brother- 
 in-law in princely carousals. But now 
 approached the hour of bed-time for 
 the youthful couple. They were shewn 
 a room of state^ no ceremony' having 
 been omitted of bride-cakes, points, 
 garters, and gloves ; but the rarest part 
 of all the sport was sewing into the 
 sheet, casting off the brides left hose, 
 with many other petty sorceries, which, 
 though curious, are unseemly. There 
 was, however, no small loss that night 
 in chains and jewels, and many great 
 ladies w^ere made shorter by the skirts, 
 and were well enough served that they 
 could keep cut no better. 
 
 Next morning James gave the young- 
 couple a reveille-matin before they were 
 up, and swore by the rood he should 
 that day celebrate their nuptials by 
 another fete. 
 
 N 2
 
 268 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OB, 
 
 CHAP. Xf. 
 
 This heavy-beaded revel, east and west, 
 Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations ; 
 They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase 
 Soil our addition; and indeed it takes 
 From our achievements, though performed at height. 
 The pith and marrow of our attribute. 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 In honour of the King of Denmark's 
 arrival, and in fulfihnent of his promise 
 to Essex, James gave a very splendid 
 entertainment to his court and the fo- 
 reigners of distinction who then so- 
 journed officially, or for pleasure, in 
 England. Among the persons who had 
 of late entirely engrossed the King's 
 attention, was James Hay, of whom we 
 have already spoken, and who became 
 so great a favourite as to obtain knight-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 269 
 
 hood and nobility in the short space of 
 a few weeks. Robert Carr, his friend, 
 acted in the capacity of a hanger-on till 
 this period, but accident was now to 
 place him in a more elevated station. 
 
 The King of Denmark was James's 
 brother-in-law, and he was a great lover 
 of sports of all kinds. The taste for 
 tilts and tournaments though cherished, 
 glowed only with the faint heat of an 
 expiring passion. A romantic compli- 
 ment to Elizabeth contributed to its 
 duration in the last reign. Sir Henry 
 Lee, Knight of the Garter, had vowed 
 that he would, each year of his life, 
 until disabled by age, present himself 
 at the tilt yard as his sovereign's knight ; 
 and this gave rise to annual conten- 
 tions in the lists. Twenty-five of the 
 first persons in the nation, among whom 
 were Lord Leicester, Sir Christopher 
 Hatton and others, formed a society of 
 arms. In 1590, Sir Henry Lee, yield-
 
 270 BLIGHTED AMBITION 
 
 ing to age and infirmities, resigned hi« 
 honourable post, and solemnly invested 
 the celebrated Earl of Cumberland with 
 the envied dignity. This was a last 
 effort to revive a pastime hallowed by 
 time, and rendered brilliant by its serving 
 as an apprenticeship to the more honour- 
 able, because more dangerous, achieve- 
 ments of the tented field. King James 
 neither loved arms nor warlike sports, 
 yet he resolved on entertaining the 
 King of Denmark with a tilting match. 
 On this day Lord Hay, being of the 
 society of arms, was appointed, among 
 many others, to perform a tilting, and 
 Robert Carr oflBciated as his squire, 
 Carr was really beloved by the Lord 
 Hay, who augured well of his bold dis- 
 position and his comely figure^ com- 
 mixed. Indeed, if Lord Hay had ranged 
 over all the dependents of the court, he 
 could not perhaps have lighted on a 
 fitter person to do the duty of a squire.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 271 
 
 As Squire Carr, according to the cus- 
 tom of this pastime, was carrying the 
 Lord Hay's device to the King, and 
 when he was about to alight from his 
 horse, to perform his office, the restive 
 steed started, and threw his rider. In 
 the fall Master Carr broke his leg ; and 
 this accident, says the " Harleian Miscel- 
 lany," being no less strange than sud- 
 den in such a place, caused the King to 
 demand who the unfortunate gentleman 
 was? 
 
 " Carr, your Majesty ; Robert Carr is 
 my name," said the disabled squire. 
 
 ^^ Carr, Carr," quoth James, *Uhou's 
 no Robin Carr that was once my ain 
 page ?" 
 
 '' The same, so please your High- 
 ness," was Carr's reply. 
 
 ^^ Carry him across the road to our 
 palace," said the King, " and there let 
 him be provided for, poor child, until
 
 272 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 such time as he be recovered of his 
 hurt." 
 
 The King was obeyed ; and the sports 
 of the day proceeded with all imagin- 
 able delight. In the evening the com- 
 pany were gratified with one of those 
 revels for which the court of James 
 was so famous ; this was a masque 
 which combined the rich doings of ca- 
 rousals and 'sports of all kinds. The 
 feast was magnificent, and the royal 
 guests most lovingly embraced each 
 other at table. The parliament had 
 in the course of its duties provided libe- 
 rally for James's hospitality, and he 
 lavished its bounty in good living, 
 shews, sights, and banquetings from 
 morn to night. 
 
 In the evening the entertainment 
 commenced with a " solemn dancing," 
 in which the Queen footed it away in 
 grave measures, followed by the coran- 
 toes, and the galliards, and this w^as
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 273 
 
 kept up with ceremony, till at length 
 the company insensibly tript it away at 
 Frenchmore and the cushion dance, 
 when lords and ladies, knights and 
 kitchen maids, grooms and dames of 
 high degree, without a shadow of dis- 
 tinction, hobbled away to the royal 
 tune of omnium-gatherum. To this 
 succeeded hoity-toity, and la Volta, in 
 which only the young nobility engaged, 
 or persons of that ilk. But la Volta, 
 according to Sir John Davies, if these 
 lines, in his " Orchestra," are to be 
 credited, was our famous waltz. 
 
 Yet there is one, the most delightful kind, 
 A lofty jumping, or a leaping round, 
 
 Where arm in arm, two dancers are entwined, 
 And whirl themselves in strict embracement's 
 
 bound, 
 And still their feet an anapest do sound ; 
 
 An anapest is all tbeir music's song, 
 
 Whose first two feet are short, the rest are lo-ig. 
 
 The dance was succeeded by the 
 N 3
 
 274 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; GR^ 
 
 Queen's masque in the Banqueting* 
 House, and this was indeed a pageant 
 worth seeing. At the lower end of the 
 room, there was a great engine which 
 had motion, and in it were the images 
 of sea-horses, with other terrible fishes^ 
 which were ridden by Moors. At the 
 opposite end, there was a great shell in 
 the form of a shallop, wherein were four 
 seats ; — on the lowest, sat Queen Anne, 
 with my Lady Bedford ; on the rest 
 were placed the Ladies Suffolk, Derby ^ 
 Rich, Effingham, Ann Herbert, Susan 
 Herbert, Elizabeth Howard, Walsing- 
 ham and Bevil. Their apparel was rich, 
 but in the opinion of Winwood, too 
 light and courtezan-like, for such gre<it 
 ones. Instead of vizards, they wore a 
 black gause crape on their faces, and 
 black gloves on their arms up to the 
 elbow ; yet they were " a troop of lean 
 cheeked Moors." The Kings sat in state, 
 as did the Ambassadors of foreign pow-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. S75 
 
 ers, who were present. One of Ben 
 Jonson's best masques was then per- 
 formed to the court, after which, the 
 Spanish Ambassador, Don Taxis, re- 
 newed the dance with Queen Anne, who 
 trod it in stately footings, as long as the 
 lusty old gallant could beat time to her 
 favourite troly- poly ; — others followed 
 the example of the Queen, nor did the 
 pageant cease till the bugle summoned 
 the company to the banquet in the great 
 chamber. 
 
 The King of Denmark led in his sis- 
 ter. King James the Lady Suffolk, the 
 nobles and strangers followed in pairs ; 
 and after the dainties under which the 
 tables groaned were removed. King 
 James standing up, gave as a toast, "the 
 King of Denmark," and the royal guest 
 having made a Danish speech, agree- 
 ably to the majesty of his conceptions, 
 proposed the health of " James, by the 
 grace of God," which being drank with
 
 fi16 BLIGHTED ambition; Olt, 
 
 furious shouts of applause, the King of 
 England returned thanks, saying " he 
 was right glad to find the favour of the 
 Lord was in Judea, in giving them one 
 heart in doing and obeying the <5om- 
 mandments of the King of Denmark.'' 
 
 James then addressing his courtiers, 
 his Majesty said, " we'll now drink the 
 Emperor/' and the company did so. — 
 In a word there was not a crowned head 
 in Europe, whose health was not drank 
 that night, — and the royal party broke 
 up in a very flourishing condition, the 
 King of Denmark requiring the assis- 
 tance of Sir John Pooly and the Lord 
 Hay to conduct him to his bedchamber. 
 
 *' Ask me any gift, Pooly," said the 
 Dane, " a — a — a — ny g — g — gift to the 
 V — V — value of half my k — k — ^k — 
 king — kingdom, and thou 'It have it." 
 
 " Then have a large pair of stag's 
 horns," said Philip Herbert, who was 
 supporting the royal Dane's head and
 
 THE RISE AND PALL OF SOMEliSE'T. 277 
 
 shoulders, while the serving men were 
 carrying him to his couch for the night. 
 
 The King overheard this^ and replied 
 " a very m — m — ^moderate request for 
 a fool — Pooly, Pooly, thou 'It hae th — 
 thr — three th — th — ^thousand dol — lol — 
 lol — lollars the mora." 
 
 The " morn/' as Christern said, came, 
 but whether Sir John Pooly actually 
 got the three thousand dollars, we de- 
 pone not; "the catastrophe of the House 
 of Stuart" not being within our reach 
 to-day. But on the morrow, James 
 and his guests, accompanied by the 
 whole court, repaired to Croydon Field, 
 v\4iere the sports of horse-racing were 
 to be exhibited. 
 
 Here were assembled an immense 
 crowd, both English and Scotch ; and 
 Philip Herbert attended James, as his 
 Master of the Horse. In the course of 
 his duties around the field, Herbert 
 came in contact with John Ramsay^-a
 
 278 BLIGHTED ambition; or, 
 
 Scottish gentleman, to whom he offered 
 a personal rudeness, in driving him back 
 from the course. Ramsay, who is better 
 known in history as the assassin of the 
 unfortunate Alexander Gowry, with 
 great courage lifted his horse -whip, and 
 struck Herbert over the head and face, 
 bidding him take that as an insolent 
 minion. A maimed fellow named Pinch- 
 back^ a roaring captain, who had but 
 two fingers on his hand, upon witness- 
 ing this affair, seized his dagger, and 
 rode about the field exclaiming, " let us 
 break our fast with them here, and dine 
 with the rest at London." 
 
 But the King rode up at this moment 
 and charged Herbert, on his allegiance, 
 not to return the blow, a precaution for 
 which there seemed little need, as the 
 doughty Master of the Horse, finding 
 none of his blood was spilt, cared little 
 about his reputation. As to Pinchback, 
 the fellow wished to make it a national
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 279 
 
 quarrel ; but the effeminacy of Herbert 
 preserved the King's peace. 
 
 '^ The honour," said James, *^ is only 
 due to God, whose miraculous power 
 has this day been no less manifested in 
 raising so much phlegm in a man so 
 nobly born, as might master so great a 
 fury, than when he discovered to Samp- 
 son a cold fountain in the jaw-bone of 
 an ass — wherefore, kneel down Philip 
 Herbert, and rise Sir Philip, Lord 
 Herbert of Shurland, and Earl of Mont- 
 gomery." 
 
 Herbert rose now a knight, a baron, 
 an earl, but he rose to receive the re- 
 proaches of his mother, who was that 
 sister of Sir Philip Sidney to w^hom he 
 addressed his '' Arcadia." 
 
 The Ladv Pembroke, Herbert's mo- 
 ther, on hearing the tidings of her son's 
 disgrace, in receiving a blow and not re- 
 senting it, gave the rein to her palfry, 
 and cantered briskly up to that part of
 
 280 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 the iSeld where the King- was surrounded 
 by his favourites and ministers, for 
 there was a radical distinction between 
 these two classes of courtiers — 
 
 " What is this I hear of thee, Philip 
 Herbert," said the all accomplished lady. 
 " Hast thou torn to rags, to very tat- 
 ters, that coat of arras, on which ho- 
 nour is the shield?" 
 
 ^^ Madam," quoth Herbert, laugh- 
 ing, ^^ I tore my coat of arms to staunch 
 much blood, which might this day have 
 been shed." 
 
 " Slave and varlet !" exclaimed Lady 
 Pembroke, '^ let it prove fatal to the 
 last Scot that remains in the land, the 
 Royal Family excepted ; resent thou 
 that insult, or no longer boast thyself 
 of the noble blood of Herbert, and of 
 Sidney." 
 
 ^' Lady Pembroke, Lady Pembroke," 
 cried the King, *^ what needs there all 
 this to do — And for you Ramsay, this
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 281 
 
 insolency in my presence was not well 
 timed." — Then turning his horse's head, 
 he seized the bridle of the Lady Pem- 
 broke's palfry, and begun to remonstrate 
 with her ; but she disregarded all the 
 fine speeches his Majesty made, and in 
 bitter terms called her son coward and 
 poltroon. 
 
 The Queen had by this time come up 
 to the royal station on the course, and 
 added her entreaties to those of James, 
 to persuade the Lady Pembroke to 
 retire ; but in vain ; for in the agony 
 and distress of her soul she abandoned 
 the reins of her steed, wrung her hands, 
 and tore her hair. And while the atten- 
 tion of a few was occupied at this point 
 of view, that of the rest of the sports- 
 men and spectators was directed to the 
 marshalling of two parties, the one 
 English and the other Scotch, as if 
 resolved to terminate this quarrel agree- 
 ably to the suggestion of maimed
 
 282 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OU, 
 
 Pinchback. The Lord Bruce was 
 joined by Ramsay and the other Scots 
 on the field, and to this party Sir Ed- 
 ward Sackville attached himself also,, 
 out of respect for the Lord Bruce. 
 The Earl of Northumberland seemed 
 to rally round him the bulk of the 
 English^ who were excited to revenge 
 by the furious cries of the discon- 
 tented, who shouted aloud these homely 
 verses in derision and contempt of their 
 Caledonian intruders ; 
 
 They beg our lands, our goods, our lives, 
 
 They switch our nobles, and lie with their wives. 
 
 But James, who foresaw the conse- 
 quence of trifling with this irritable dis- 
 position shewn by both nations, caused 
 the trumpets to sound for the racers to 
 appear at the starting-post, and gallop- 
 ing himself up to where the English 
 were gathering, he offered to bet with 
 any gentleman a purse of one hundred
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 283 
 
 gold Henries on the first heat. — Over 
 the generous and sportive mind of the 
 chafed Englishmen, this proposal acted 
 like magic ; they forgot that a nobleman 
 of their number had not the capacity to 
 resent an injury on a craven Scot, and 
 twenty voices offered to take the King's 
 bet. 
 
 James was sufficiently politic, though 
 very timorous in his nature ; he pro- 
 fessed all the attachment of a son, a 
 brother, a father, to the English ; he 
 joined in all their sports, in every part 
 of their religious ceremonies, and with 
 their laws he professed himself en- 
 chanted ; — towards the Scots he bore 
 himself with an awful reverence, for he 
 certainly looked upon them as the lion 
 supporter of his crown, while the uni- 
 corn might be fitly represented by his 
 title from Henry VII. as the other sup- 
 porter. — And by a dexterous manoeuvre 
 on his return from the field^ the King
 
 284 
 
 effectually won the hearts of his Eng- 
 lish subjects whom the insolence of Ram- 
 say had offended — Ramsay nevertheless 
 had his reward, for in acknowledgment 
 of his gratitude to this feudal bravo, 
 who stabbed Gowry to the heart, James 
 conferred on him the honour of knight- 
 hood, with an additional bearing to his 
 coat of arms, a hand holding forth a 
 dagger and reversed proper, piercing a 
 bloody heart, the point crowned impe- 
 rial with this motto — Hcec dextra vin- 
 dex Priiicipis et Patrice, The same Sir 
 John Ramsay was afterwards created 
 Lord Haddington, and Earl of Holder- 
 nesse; but whether in token of his switch- 
 ing Herbert, this deponent saith not. 
 The now King published his book of 
 sports, encouraging the people to such 
 diversions on a Sunday as had prevailed 
 during the late reigns, and which, 
 though railed against by the Puritans, 
 were in high favour with the people,
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 285 
 
 with whom the persecution of the unof- 
 fending Recusants was but another name 
 for piety to Heaven. 
 
 A short time only was necessary to 
 restore Master Carr to the use of his 
 limbs, and as soon as he was able to 
 appear at court, the Lord James Hay 
 presented him to the King. James in- 
 stantly discovered in Robert Carr traces 
 of a fine gentleman, or such an as- 
 semblage of qualifications as seemed 
 requisite to make the character com- 
 plete. In his favourites the King 
 sought not men of splendid talents, of 
 acute wit, and great knowledge of Fo- 
 reign parts. None of his minions ap- 
 pear graced with the frame of mind 
 peculiar to a gentleman, I mean a man 
 completely qualified for the service and 
 good, as for the ornament and delight 
 of society. In mind none of them 
 appear adorned with all the dignity 
 and elevation of spirit that human na-
 
 2S6 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OH, 
 
 ture is capable of. Is the understanding 
 of Herbert clear ? ^.The reason of Hume 
 free from prejudice ? Does Hay disco- 
 ver a steady judgment ? And shall we 
 seek for extensive knowledge in Robert 
 Carr ? The heart of a gentleman is firm 
 and intrepid, void of all inordinate pas- 
 sions, and full of tenderness, compassion 
 and benevolence ; his manners are mo- 
 dest without bashfulness, frank and 
 affable without impertinence, obliging 
 and complaisant without servility, cheer- 
 ful and in good humour without noise. 
 Besides, the favourite of a King should 
 run through a long series of education ; 
 he should be principled in religion, in- 
 structed in all the moral virtues, and 
 led through the whole course of the 
 polite arts and sciences. He should 
 be no stranger to foreign courts and 
 camps ; his mind must be opened by 
 travel ; his views of the politics and 
 interests of foreign states must be
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 287 
 
 gained by observation, and not merely 
 from books ; and besides the polish and 
 fashion of the world, he must add the 
 ornaments of languages, and the bodily 
 exercises most in vogue. 
 
 In these, a smattering of French, and 
 some skill in bodilv exercises, the Lord 
 Hay and Master Robert Carr possessed 
 some knowledge, and great acquain- 
 tance with the least part of a gentle- 
 man's accomplishments, a taste for dress. 
 Herbert has now appeared before the 
 reader in the exact portraiture of the 
 renowned squire to whom he has been 
 likened. With the leash of Scots who 
 now entirely engrossed the King's at- 
 tention, we shall have much to do. Carr 
 was no sooner presented to James, than 
 he appointed him a groom of the bed- 
 chamber. In this situation the young 
 man exercised great diligence, which 
 the King repaid by shewing him ex-
 
 288 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 traordinaiy favour, doubling the me- 
 rit of every action in estimation ; so 
 that many of the elder servants about 
 his Majesty's person were neglected and 
 obscured, that Master Carr might be 
 graced and dignified. ^^ Thus the hand 
 of the diligent maketh rich and the 
 dutiful servant cometh to honour." In 
 a word, Robert Carr without fraud to 
 obtain, or desert to continue his promo- 
 tion, becomes the chief favourite of 
 King James. There was no suit could 
 be procured, no petition presented, no 
 grant sought, no letter delivered, but 
 by the direct mediation of Robert Carr. 
 Suitors bribed him with great rewards, 
 the King requited his service with 
 large sums of money. With his favour 
 his wealth daily increased, with the 
 augmentation of both his honours mul- 
 tiplied. In him it was truly and 
 shrewdly observed, that riches dignify
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 289 
 
 their owners^ equally with virtue ; for 
 he rose from the humble situation of a 
 page, to the honour of knighthood. 
 
 x4.s soon as Sir Robert felt his conse- 
 quence, he enlisted in his service his 
 particular acquaintance, Thomas Over- 
 bury ; and though in the fair way to be 
 spoiled by the King's excessive indul- 
 gence, our young knight had sense 
 enough to be guided in all his actions 
 by the more accomplished mind of 
 Overbury. It was at a convivial enter- 
 tainment at Carr's one evening, that 
 Overbury suggested a project which 
 soon enabled the favourite to surpass 
 all the ministers of James, in his Ma- 
 jesty's own opinion. — This was an alli- 
 ance in marriage of his grace's daugh- 
 ter, the Lady Elizabeth^ with a son of 
 the Elector Palatine of Germanv, 
 then the most powerful friend of the 
 Protestant cause on the continent. — 
 ^' If his Majesty seems inclined to 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 290 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OK, 
 
 this/' said OverLury to his friend, '^ and 
 propose to reward you ; in a delicate 
 way, avoid accepting further honour, 
 on the plea of poverty to support it — 
 should the King propose a grant of land, 
 endeavour to get his Grace's permis- 
 sion to truck with Raleigh for the 
 Manor of Sherbourne — you can explain 
 to the King, it was part of the see of 
 Salisbury ; and that Elizabeth's knight, 
 on going to take possession, fell from 
 bis horse and broke his leg, ominous 
 enough, that his neck will be broken 
 unless he part with it, though the King 
 can confiscate it even now — the prero- 
 gative of his Majesty, in his eyes being 
 like that of Bourdeaux, son of the Black 
 Prince, above the laws of England."^ 
 
 Sir Robert Carr lost no time in sug- 
 gesting to the King the important pro- 
 
 * The judges in Richard II. 's time, declared the 
 Kini? to be above the law.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 291 
 
 ject of a matrimonial alliance of the Prin- 
 cess Elizabeth with the Elector Palatine's 
 son, denominated the Plasgrave. James 
 not only approved of the idea, but was 
 transported with the plan — " Sir Robert 
 Carr/' said the King, " we vvill create 
 you Viscount Rochester." 
 
 '^ But your Majesty," said the Favou- 
 rite, who took now unpardonable liber- 
 ties in speech and advice with the King, 
 *' I lack fortune to sustain this new ho- 
 nour." 
 
 '' There's land enough in England,and 
 thou shalt not want," answered the King. 
 
 " Might I propose to Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, your Grace's prisoner, some 
 hopes, and thereby secure his manor of 
 Sherbourne?" said the Favourite. 
 
 " Lookye, Robin," replied James, 
 *' Sherbourne manor is even now in abey- 
 ance to us. — The traitor is dead in law, 
 albeit we hae spared him in our mercy, 
 o 2
 
 292 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 shooting like a jubar from our crown. — 
 But go to him and make thy own terms 
 with him, and cinn sua voluntate vel 
 contra voliintatem^ we will ah nostro 
 facto escheat fair Sherbourne to our 
 noble cousin Rochester." 
 
 The Viscount succeeded and obtained 
 possession of the coveted domain ; but 
 Raleigh, from whom the offer of Sher- 
 bourne Castle first seemed to come, 
 found in the end that he was cozened 
 by a juggler ; Rochester had not the 
 power to procure the knight his liberty, 
 and James was too much the creature 
 of fear to suffer such a man to be at 
 laro'e. But the confinement of Sir 
 Walter was cheered by the company 
 of a nobler person as prisoner than he 
 had expected to be honoured with. 
 This was the Earl of Northumberland, 
 whose incarceration was owing to the 
 discovery of the gunpowder plot, which
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 293 
 
 every ragged dirty urchin in the 
 land celebrates annually with its Guy 
 Fawkes, a bonfire, and a pennyworth of 
 gunpowder : — though we have ample 
 materials beside us to make an interest- 
 ing romance from this event, we forbear 
 to tax the reader's patience by details 
 destitute of novelty ; but it shall not 
 be our task to use any endeavour to 
 shake the faith of the credulous in that 
 right awful plot ! The favourers alike, 
 and the enemies of James, allowed that 
 the gunpowder treason sprung out of 
 the despair of the Catholics ; and the 
 Lord Henry Howard enlarged on this 
 point at the trial of the '^ conspirators." 
 " That false priest Watson, and the arch 
 traitor Percy," a relation of the Earl 
 of Northumberland, ^' were the chief 
 diviners of this accursed com plot," from 
 which that nobleman derived misfortune 
 and disgrace. 
 
 The discovery of this plot is usually
 
 294 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 understood to be owing to a personal 
 kindness of Thomas Percy to the Lord 
 Monteagle, eldest son of the Earl of 
 Morley ; but the court never shewed any 
 original favour to the family of the Lord 
 Morley, which may strengthen the report, 
 that the Marquis de Beaumont, by com- 
 mand of his master, Henry IV. of France, 
 disclosed the whole of the conspiracy to 
 King James at Theobalds. True it is, that 
 Cecil,in his speech upon Digby'strial, gives 
 Lord Monteagle high credit for the dis- 
 covery ; and, if an annuity of five hundred 
 pounds granted for his life, and a pen- 
 sion of two hundred pounds to him and 
 his heirs for ever, be sufficient to esta- 
 blish the popular opinion on this head, 
 there w^ould be little merit in disturbing 
 that opinion by reasonings which belong 
 to the graver page of historical narra- 
 tion, rather than to the more flippant 
 details of brilliant romance. 
 
 Henry Percy, ninth Earl of North--
 
 tHE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 295 
 
 umberland, was by the court, at the in- 
 stigation of the ministers faction, treated 
 with unsparing cruelty on account of his 
 relationshij) to Thomas Percy, a ring- 
 leader in the gunpowder treason. After 
 all the scrutiny I have been able to give 
 this affair, on which, I freely confess, I 
 am very incredulous, I could never dis- 
 cover one line of argument to convince 
 me, that the noble Earl had any thing- 
 more to do with his relation's guilt, than 
 I had to do vrith the Cato Street con- 
 spirators. But be that as it may, the 
 Earl w'as imprisoned in the Tower, from 
 whence he was carried before the court 
 of the Star Chamber, and there con- 
 victed of six several contempts, mispri- 
 sions and offences. The grand charge 
 seems to have been '' for endeavouring 
 to be head of the papists, and to procure 
 them toleration." The cant in the re- 
 maining counts of the indictment, might 
 gratify Cecil and the Howards, but it is
 
 296 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OK^ 
 
 devoid of reason, and utterly unworthy 
 the grave deliberations of statesmen. 
 But the jugglers who tried Northumber- 
 land, adjudged him '' to pay a fine to 
 the use of his majesty, of thirty thou- 
 sand pounds, and to be displaced and 
 removed from the place of a privy 
 counsellor, and from being captain of 
 his majesty's pensioners, and from being 
 lieutenant of any of his majesty's coun- 
 ties, and from all and every other offices 
 which he held of his majesty's grace 
 and favour ; and hereafter to be disabled 
 to take upon him or exercise any of the 
 said offices and places, and to return 
 prisoner to the Tower of London, there 
 to remain during his life." 
 
 This was the summit of the ministers 
 revenge : they had disposed of Grey, 
 Cobham, and Raleigh, before James 
 knew either the temper or disposition 
 of the people he was called to govern ; 
 and, certainly before the King coulcl
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 297 
 
 appreciate the character of Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. Now they subjected to a cruel 
 imprisonment^ and in the prime of his 
 life, the only man who seemed possessed 
 of vigour enough to do his country ser- 
 vice, by preventing some of those inva- 
 sions on the liberty of the subject, which 
 followed the tragedy of the gunpowder 
 plot. James was easy and goodnatured, 
 fond of recreation, and fonder still of 
 pleasures ; a bigot in religion, and a fool 
 in respect to the treasures of his people. 
 He was surrounded by needy and spend- 
 thrift favourites; and his counsels were 
 directed by crafty and avaricious states- 
 men, who found that all they could 
 wring from the nation, and bring into 
 the Exchequer, was too little to meet 
 the extravagance of their majesties, 
 whose maxim seemed to be " all for 
 ourselves." 
 
 o 3
 
 298 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR^ 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 -Such a noise arose 
 
 As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest. 
 As loud, and to as many tunes. Hats, cloakes^ 
 Doublets, I think flew up ; and had their faces 
 Been loose this day they had been lost. Such joy 
 I never saw before. Great belly'd women, 
 That had not half a week to go, like rams 
 In the time of war, would shake the gi'ass 
 And make 'em reel before 'em. No man living 
 Could say, this is my wife there ; all were woven 
 So strangely in one piece. 
 
 THE LIFE OP HENRY VIII. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the King's grati- 
 tude for the deliverance wrought in his 
 favour, by the discovery of the gun- 
 powder plot, which in all time to come 
 was to be annually celebrated, as well as
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 299 
 
 the Gowrie conspiracy. But, indeed, 
 there seems a strange coincidence in 
 both these plots. The latter happened, 
 when James was yet in Scotland, and, 
 at a juncture when every thing and 
 every party seemed to promote his in- 
 terest. The church interfered not with 
 his authority, the private quarrels of the 
 nobility were gradually subsiding, and 
 if the Gowrie conspiracy ever existed, 
 it was assuredly one of the worst con- 
 certed which the history of treason can 
 produce, for the circumstances were of 
 the wildest character that barbarous 
 times have handed down to posterity ; 
 and if the plot had succeeded, it is mar- 
 vellous what advantage any of the con- 
 spirators could reap from it. 
 
 But look at the narrative which 
 James himself gave to the public. Lord 
 Gowrie and his brother Alexander 
 Ruthven, (of that ilk who first plunged 
 a dagger ill David Rizzio,) were the
 
 300 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 sons of the Earl of Gowrie, put to death 
 ill 1584 for treason. They were accom- 
 plished young men, of amiable charac- 
 ters, had a more than common share 
 of learning, were much favoured by 
 the King, and exceedingly beloved in 
 the northern counties of Scotland. On 
 the 5th of August, 1600, James was at 
 his hunting palace, called Falkland, not 
 far from Perth, the seat of the Gowrie 
 and Ruthven popularity. He was at an 
 early hour proceeding in search of sport, 
 when Alexander Ruthven met him, and 
 with great confusion and earnestness, 
 informed him. that he had seized a 
 suspicious fellow, who had under his 
 cloak a large pot full of money, and 
 that he detained him for his majesty's 
 examination. Money was an irresis- 
 tible bait to the needy Prince, and, al- 
 though not satisfied, he was persuaded 
 by his informer to ride without attend- 
 ants to Lord Gowrie's, where the bearer
 
 THE RISE AND F\LL OF -SOMERSET. 301 
 
 of the treasure, (^whom James immedi- 
 ately supposed to be an emissary of the 
 Pope or the King of Spain,) was kept 
 in hold. They entered the castle by a 
 private way, and, ascending a blind 
 staircase to a small obscure room, they 
 found a man standing, armed at all 
 points. Ruthven, suddenly altering his 
 behaviour, told the King, that, as he had 
 slain the father of Gowrie, and of him^ 
 he must die, to expiate bis offence. 
 James reasoned with Alexander Ruth- 
 ven, defended his own conduct, and so 
 far staggered his sanguinary plan, that 
 Alexander left the room, but soon re- 
 turned denouncing death to the hap- 
 less Prince, and endeavouring to tie 
 his hands while he held a dagger to his 
 breast. The armed man, who had been 
 frightened by the King into an agony 
 of tei od trembling by. when 
 
 James, exertino; his utmost streno^th and 
 overpowering Ruth ven, gained the win-
 
 302 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR;, 
 
 dow, and calling to his attendants, they 
 forced a passage, relieved the King, and 
 killed both the Gowries. The clergy of 
 Scotland disbelieved the King's account; 
 but the members of a convention more 
 courtly in their faith, sat in judgment 
 over the mangled bodies of the young 
 men, whom they condemned as guilty 
 of treason ; their lands were forfeited ; 
 the name of Ruthven declared infa- 
 mous, and an annual day of thanksgiving 
 for the royal escape, unanimously di- 
 rected to be observed by all good sub- 
 fects. Robertson, who has taken consi- 
 derable pains to unravel this conspiracy, 
 says in conclusion : " When every other 
 surmise has failed, may we not ask whe- 
 ther the unprincipled, intriguing Anne 
 of Denmark, might not somehow be con- 
 cerned in this strange affair ?" There are 
 some hints given among Winwood's pa- 
 persof her attachment to AlexanderRuth- 
 ven, whose personal beauty was extraor-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 303 
 
 dinary, and of the King's uneasiness on 
 that account. 
 
 James, in the height of his joy for 
 the deliverance granted him, in res- 
 pect of the gunpowder plot, proposed 
 sending the Lord Hay, now Viscount 
 Doncaster and Earl of Carlisle, Ambassa- 
 dor Extraordinary to the French court, 
 to treat, as was publicly given out, 
 with Henry IV, in favour of the Hugue- 
 nots. The Viscount, on the eve of his 
 departure, gave a grand entertainment 
 at Essex House, though, from his vain 
 prodigality, he was obliged to borrow 
 the money from the Burcifer Regis ; a 
 gentleman, whom many of my readers 
 may have heard called by the vulgar 
 name of the Privy Purse. It was then 
 the fashion for the nobles to exercise their 
 skill with the rapier and dagger ; and 
 amongst those who distinguished them- 
 selves at this entertainment, was Lord 
 Sanquire, who in this exercise shewed
 
 304 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 Ills superiority to several gay young- gal- 
 lants, who prided themselves in their 
 skill in the science of self-defence ; their 
 tutor, one Turner, offered himself as a 
 swordsman before his Lordship, who 
 considered this as somewhat insolent on 
 the part of Turner, but took his position 
 and commenced balancing his foil, re- 
 questing Turner to play with him as with 
 a scholar. Turner felt piqued at the 
 defeat his scholars had met with, and 
 strove to put an affront upon Lord San- 
 quire, who still begged the fellow to 
 consider he was not a master of defence. 
 The young Lord, now, in his turn, re- 
 solved to be even with the swordsman, 
 esteeming it no little conquest to dis- 
 grace a master in the art of defence ; 
 and the man, thereupon, with a bold 
 rudeness, pressed so hard upon his Lord- 
 ship, that he thrust one of the Baron's 
 eyes out. Great was the confusion 
 created by this catastrophe, and none
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 305 
 
 could resrret the mischief more than 
 Turner : the Baron too, was conscious 
 that he meant his adversary some ill, and 
 therefore took the accident with as much 
 patience as men that lose one eye by 
 their own default. 
 
 Prince Henry, who made one of 
 the party, felt much hurt at the Ba- 
 ron's coldness, and rebuked Turner so 
 sharply for his conduct, that several 
 men of high degree besought the 
 prince in Turner's behalf; among these 
 were young Essex, and the Viscolmt 
 Rochester, a person whom the reader 
 has hitherto known as Sir Robert Carr, 
 who begged hard for the fencing master, 
 and they were joined in their entreaties 
 by the Lady Frances Essex. '^ For your 
 sake, Lady Frances," said the Prince, '^ I 
 will stay my rage, but the fellow de- 
 serves to be bastinadoed in the tilt-yard 
 every day during Lent, and put in the
 
 306 
 
 bilboes till his brain becomes as cold as 
 the point of his foil." 
 
 '^ Good, your Highness," rejoined the 
 Lady Frances, " though it be a woman 
 that saith it, you shall find it always 
 true, that anger like fear, retains a power 
 to stamp upon the fancy what figures 
 she pleases ; therefore I would not have 
 my Prince be angry with a swordsman, 
 since iron is of more use than gold, 
 though pride usually rates it and jewels 
 at the highest price." 
 
 *' A sensible observation, indeed, my 
 Lady Essex," said the Lord Keeper, who 
 was by at the time ; and the Prince was 
 so delighted with its application, that 
 his brow was instantly dilated by the 
 good humour of his mind, and his eyes 
 flashed with joy on those of the young 
 bride, who seemed to think her own 
 showed more witchery or softness when 
 she kept them half shut. 
 
 Doncaster proceeded on his embassy.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 307 
 
 but as he was also to visit the Stadi- 
 holder, he landed at Rotterdam, and next 
 morning proceeded to the Hague. The 
 expences of this dashing spendthrift, for 
 " two meals, amounted only to eleven 
 hundred gilders," or little more than one 
 hundred pounds sterling of the currency 
 of England in the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century ; but then Doncaster was 
 the representative of a great King, who 
 in the end felt ashamed to te!l his par- 
 liament how much money the Viscount's 
 journey cost the nation. The Ambassa- 
 dor was expected to go also into Ger- 
 many, and the innkeeper of the Peacock 
 at Dort, made great provisions for his 
 Excellency, upon no other order but a 
 bare fancy that he would certainly come 
 that way. Doncaster, however, tra- 
 velled by Utrecht, and mine host of the 
 Peacock at Dort followed him, com- 
 plaining that "he was much prejudiced 
 by his Excellency's baulking the good
 
 308 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 town of Dort, for, hearing of a great 
 ambassador's coming, and what he had 
 expended at Rotterdam, F' said the man, 
 '* made preparations suitable, and now 
 they will all lie on my hands." 
 
 *' Deuce take the fellow," said John 
 Gibb, who was Burcifer viee, '^ what shall 
 I doe wi' him, my lord ?" 
 
 " Give him thirty pounds, Johny," said 
 Doncaster, "albeit, we ne'er tasted o'his 
 cup ;" and the officious steward obeyed 
 the commands of his master. But then, the 
 Viscount actually had in his train a great 
 many noblemen's sons and other persons 
 of quality, that the nations he visited 
 might admire the glory of the English. 
 Howbeit he was out long, following the 
 Emperor in his progresses, from city to 
 camp, and from camp to city, so that "his 
 expense could not amount tA less than fif- 
 ty and three score thousand pounds." — 
 Having at length dispatched, with un^ 
 affected courtesy, h\? rmmou to the Em
 
 THE KISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 309 
 
 peror, the noble Viscount repaired to the 
 King of the French^, and there also sup- 
 ported his quality with the bearing of 
 a man every way insinuating and accom- 
 plished in the vanities of grandeur and 
 prodigality of ambassage. 
 
 Henry Quatre, having signified on 
 what day he would give the representa- 
 tive of his brother, King James, an au- 
 dience, all the arguments and disputes 
 between Doncaster and his train were 
 how they should go to Court. 
 
 " Coaches like curtains," quoth the 
 Viscount, " will eclipse the splendour 
 of so many brave gallants." 
 
 *^ And riding on horseback in boots," 
 reiterated Essex, who was one of the 
 Viscount's suite, " riding in boots will 
 make us look like travellers, not cour- 
 tiers." 
 
 Lord Sanquire, who had now joined 
 the tHiibassador, though not completely 
 cured of the wound in his eye^ wore a
 
 310 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR^ 
 
 black patch over it, and could join in 
 the procession, but observed '^ that not 
 having all footcloths, it would be an un- 
 suitable mixture." Those who brought 
 rich trappings for their horses were 
 willing to have them seen, so it was con- 
 cluded for the footcloth, and those who 
 had none, to their bitter cost, must fur- 
 nish themselves. 
 
 This preparation begat expectation, 
 and that filled all the windows, balconies, 
 and streets of Paris, as the Viscount and 
 his train passed, with a multitude of 
 spectators. Six trumpeters and two 
 marshals led the way dressed in tawny 
 velvet liveries, completely suited, laced 
 all over with gold and richly and closely 
 laid. The ambassador followed with 
 a numerous train of pages and footmen 
 in the same rich livery surrounding his 
 horse. The residue of his train, accord- 
 ing to their qualities and degrees, in as 
 much bravery as they could devise or
 
 THE RISE AND F4LL OF SOMERSET. 311 
 
 procure, followed in couples to the won- 
 derment of the beholders. The ambas- 
 sador's horse was shod with silver shoes, 
 lightly tacked on, and when Doncaster 
 came to any balcony or window, where 
 persons of eminence, or beautiful females 
 were placed, he immediately touched the 
 flanks of his steed, and the noble animal, 
 prancing and curvetting in humble re- 
 verence, flung away his shoes, which the 
 greedy rabble scrambled for, to the great 
 delight of the English and the astonish- 
 ment of the French, who considered our 
 ancestors a nation of shopkeepers like the 
 avaricious Dutch, who, as C. J. Fox ob- 
 erved of the British seamen, " earn 
 their money like horses and spend it like 
 asses." 
 
 The Viscount, in the mean time, was 
 contented to be gazed on and admired, 
 till a farrier, or rather an argentier; in 
 one of his rich liveries, among his train 
 of footmen, out of a tawny velvet bag, 
 took other shoes and tacked them on,
 
 312 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 where they remained till the liberal Am- 
 bassador came to the next troop of gran- 
 dees, when the ceremony of prancing and 
 curvetting again took place, and another 
 scramble commenced for the silver shoes, 
 which the noble steed threw away like 
 pieces of clay that had for a time encum- 
 bered his hoof. 
 
 iVfter many of these exhibitions on the 
 part of the Viscount, his horse and ar- 
 o'entier,the cavalcade reachedthe Louvre, 
 and his excellency and suite were pre- 
 sented to Henry Quatre. The French 
 Monarch admired the pageant much, 
 talked with great affability to the young 
 Earl of Essex, and turning to the Lord 
 San quire, addressed him as an old friend 
 with whom his Majesty had long been 
 acquainted. The Baron acknowledged 
 with much politeness the attention of the 
 King, but when his Majesty, in the 
 course of conversation, understanding 
 that he had lost an eye in a rencontre, 
 asked him emphatically, " If the man
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 313 
 
 yet lived who had done him such an in- 
 jury ?" The colour fled the cheek of the 
 Lord Sanquire, who unfortunately un- 
 derstood the question as a hint, that his 
 honour could not subsist with the life of 
 Turner. 
 
 '' Your Majesty knows," said the 
 Duke of Lorrain, a little vexed at the 
 question put to the Scottish baix)n, '' your 
 Majesty knows that the laws of England 
 are very severe against duels, and King 
 James administers those laws with the 
 wisdom of a second Solomon." 
 
 Henry of France laughed, and added 
 to the speech of the Duke of Lorrain, 
 " Your Highness is right, I believe : the 
 King of England is indeed a second So- 
 lomon ; but I hope he is not David, the 
 fidler's son." This was a positive insult 
 to King James, but it was slurred over 
 by Lord Sanquire, who felt too much 
 pain in his own breast to think of resent- 
 ing an affront offered to his prince ; and 
 
 VOL. r. p
 
 314 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OK, 
 
 the ambassador was engaged at the mo 
 merit in conversation with some of hia 
 eoimtrymen, who belonged to the guard 
 du corps that were in attendance, so that 
 he to whom it particularly belonged to 
 take notice of this affair, did not then 
 know any thing of it, and when it was 
 afterwards mentioned to him by King 
 James, the surprise of Doncaster was 
 only equalled by the sovereign's indig- 
 nation towards the unfortunate Lord 
 Sanquire. 
 
 The young Earl of Essex proceeded 
 on his travels through the continent, the 
 Lords Hay and Sanquire returned to Eng^ 
 land, where Rochester now engrossed uni- 
 versal attention. Among the persons on 
 whom Rochester most depended for gui^ 
 dance and direction, was Thonias Over* 
 l^ry, of that ilk between whom and th« 
 Viscount there existed in the world's eyes 
 not only a friendship but an indissoluble 
 bond, neither could there be more ti>ud^
 
 THE RISE AND FALL Ot' SOMERSET. 315 
 
 ship used, since there was nothing so 
 secret, nor any matter so private, but the 
 favourite imparted it to Mr. Overbury. 
 Rochester, with all his good fortune was 
 not insensible to the obligations he owed 
 Overbury, and took occasion to intro- 
 duce him to Cecil, who was now grow- 
 ing into years. The Lord Secretary soon 
 discov^ered the extraordinary abilities of 
 Overbury, and conjured Rochester, as he 
 loved the King and hoped to serve him- 
 self, on no account to quit the friendship 
 of the shrewd lawyer. With the King 
 there was no favour denied that Roches- 
 ter asked, and since knighthood was the 
 order of the day, that his Pythias might 
 be the more upon a level with himself, he 
 asked the King to knight Thomas Over- 
 bury. This suit was seconded by both 
 Cecil and the Earl of Suffolk. Jtoies 
 complied with their petition, or rather 
 their Lordships' recommendation, (for 
 there is a classical correctness m calling 
 p 2
 
 316 . BLIGHTER AMBITION; OR, 
 
 things by their right names in the pre« 
 sence of our judges) and Thomas Over- 
 bury was dignified with the title of Sir, 
 The Countess of Essex, young, gay 
 and witty, flirted perpetually about the 
 Court, in the company of such belles as 
 graced the masques of Queen Anne, or 
 the banquets of Prince Henry. Her 
 parents were in the zenith of power and 
 greatness ; she was caressed by the 
 Queen, admired by the beaux, and chiefly 
 by the Prince and Rochester. But the 
 Lady Frances still rei^riembered the in- 
 sult offered to her lord by the King's 
 son when at tennis, and though her 
 uncle, Lord Henry Howard, now Earl 
 of Northampton, strove much and long 
 to gain her good will towards the Prince, 
 she disliked the perpetual gravity of his 
 countenance and the look of his eye 
 which served more for command and re- 
 prehension than for entreaty and love. 
 Besides, though his Highness gave ban- 
 quets, with magnificent and even prince-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 317 
 
 iy dignity, there were nobles in the land 
 who daily feasted two hundred depend- 
 ants ; and Prince Henry looked with a 
 special eye that nothing should be spent 
 in disorder, or the charge made greater 
 through the want of foresight or well 
 managing in his officers, among whom 
 he ever affected a demonstration of 
 princely greatness, and that all things 
 should pass with decency and decorum, 
 and without all rudeness, noise or dis- 
 order. 
 
 Rochester, on the other hand, gave 
 splendid entertainments, and even sought 
 to rival Prince Henry. His prodigality 
 was immense ; his excess of riot seemed 
 inexhaustible ; the profusion displayed in 
 his dress and his household came up even 
 to what the oldest and richest of the 
 nobility could boast. Rochester prac- 
 tised none of the English ancient customs 
 because he was a stranger to their man- 
 ners; the strictness and severity that
 
 318 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 many honourable families of the land 
 observed, he scorned and contemned, 
 applauding things strange and new, 
 though never so costly, and for the at- 
 taining of which he neither spared purse 
 nor credit. His bravoes committed all 
 manner of crimes with impunity ; they 
 ran into debt in all places, and when dun- 
 ned for payment, only laughed their cre- 
 ditors into a reference to " my Lord Ro- 
 chester." If the roaring boys of North- 
 ampton sought a quarrel, the bravadoes 
 of Rochester were at hand to nourish it. 
 If the boneventors of Doncaster en- 
 countered the guarterers of another no- 
 ble, the factions of the other favourites 
 would defend them from the danger of 
 the law. In a word, the ale-houses, 
 dicing-houses, taverns and hosteries of 
 vice and iniquity, beyond measure were 
 filled with the creatures and dependants 
 of the favourites and ministers, there 
 being, at the period of which we write.
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 319 
 
 " as much extortion for sin, as there was 
 raking for rents," and as many ways to 
 spend money^ as there were turnings and 
 windings in the streets and lanes of the 
 good city of London, To outward ap- 
 pearance, evil seemed to overmatch good, 
 and evil intentions and wicked counsels 
 seemed to prosper more than those that 
 were profitable to the commonwealth, 
 and honourable to the councillors. 
 
 Sir Thomas Overbury was now no 
 longer hedged in by the obscurity of a 
 student at law in the Temple ; he 
 shone in all the splendour of his patron 
 Rochester, who, at one of those splendid 
 entertainments which he gave to the 
 court, so offended Prince Henry, that 
 Overbury took no small pains to effect 
 a reconciliation, but unfortunately with- 
 out success. With Rochester this was 
 desired with that cool and unblushing 
 character, by which he was in great 
 emergencies peculiarly distinguished ;
 
 320 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 but with Overbury it was sought with 
 zeal and sincerity, no less than by the 
 Earl of Northampton. 
 
 It happened that in the course of con- 
 versation, the Earl had touched upon his 
 favourite theme, the gunpowder plot ; 
 for having recently abjured Catholicism, 
 he judged the best proof he could give 
 of being a good Protestant, was by vaunt- 
 ing '^ that the skull of faithless Percy 
 now stood sentinel where he was once 
 captain pioneer ; (alluding to the head 
 of Percy, stuck on the House of Lords) 
 and Lambeth was now Catesby's horizon 
 that was his arsenal. There," con- 
 tinued the EdiI, " there their giddy 
 pates are left tanquam malus naviSj 
 like the mast of a ship, to use the 
 prophet's phrase, to warn passengers 
 by what just disaster these roving 
 pirates came to their unhappy end : 
 especially for seeking the golden fleece, 
 not by Jason's merit but by Medea's
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 321 
 
 sorcery. But the Percy may thank his 
 cousin of Northumberland." 
 
 " Gramercie !" exclaimed Prince 
 Henry, '' my Lord of Northampton it 
 comes not well in my presence to speak 
 so of the Earl of Northumberland, of that 
 ilk who would have drawn his sword in 
 my father's favour, but that ye, of the 
 houses of Howard and Cecil prevented 
 I trow ; nevertheless, ye have made him 
 captive, disgraced and insulted over 
 him ; — and Fortescue, that did oppose 
 the succession, enjoys his liberty without 
 any more considerable loss than he might 
 sustain by the exchange of the Chancel- 
 lor's place in the Exchequer for that in 
 the Duchy of Lancaster." 
 
 " A very proper speech," cried Prim- 
 rose, the Prince's foster-brother ; but a 
 look from Henry closed the lips of his 
 officious parasite. Northampton bit his 
 lip, as much from the reproof he met 
 p 3
 
 322 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 with from one so young, as from the 
 knowledge he had of the Prince's popu- 
 larity in the city ; and Rochester, who 
 considered himself bound to support the 
 part the Earl was acting, said, ^^ That it 
 was well seen why Henry Percy allowed 
 Sir Walter Raleigh a pension of one 
 hundred and twenty-six pounds yearly, 
 albeit the world attributed this bounty 
 to Northumberland's generous favour of 
 all good learning, and the obscure parts 
 of the sciences, especially the mathema- 
 tics.'^ 
 
 For once in his life, the gravity of 
 Prince Henry's face relaxed, and he 
 smiled at the insolence and ignorance 
 of Rochester, for whom, even the stout 
 champion, Northampton, blushed. 
 
 Prince Henry rose from table and 
 walked away, saying, as he leant on the 
 arm of his faithful friend Primrose — 
 '' Heard'st thou ever language like that,
 
 THE RISE AND fALL OF SOMERSET. 323 
 
 there is a speech for the companion of 
 the first clerk in Christendom — and 
 he talked sofof Raleigh. Why, Prim- 
 rose, none but my father would keep 
 such a bird in a cage. — And North- 
 ampton blushed ; but such a blush ! 
 why, Primrose, it savoured of carmine 
 daubed on the hollow cheeks of a death's 
 head." 
 
 The company Prince Henry left re- 
 velled it bravely, but Rochester consi- 
 dered himself rumped by the Prince, and 
 resolved to be even with him the first 
 opportunity that offered. 
 
 The Prince a few days afterwards 
 gave a masque at his house in St. James's, 
 to which were invited all the lords and 
 ladies of the court, except the Vis- 
 count Rochester and his friend the Earl 
 of Northampton. Rochester now con- 
 sidered how he should revenge the af- 
 front on the Prince, but Northampton 
 considering this a personal insult, pre- 
 vailed on his niece, the CoUntess of Es^
 
 324 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 sex, not to attend. The Prince in vain, 
 among the masquers, sought to discover 
 the young Countess. 
 
 The ladies who were present could 
 not perceive by his Highness's behaviour 
 when they removed their vizards the 
 least appearance of any particular in- 
 clination to any of them. It was ru- 
 moured at length, that Rochester that 
 night gave a supper, an entertainment 
 but lately come into fashion ; but one 
 in which King James and his favourites 
 took great delight, because of the privity 
 and jollity which attended their repast, 
 at an hour when the citizens were 
 drowned in sleep, and bereft alike of 
 the cares of business and the supercilious 
 looks of the courtiers, who rioted at 
 the nation's charge. 
 
 Prince Henry in despair left his house 
 in disguise, and repaired to Rochester's, 
 where the King, Queen Anne, the 
 Howards, and Salisburies, enjoyed their 
 revel. To his mother he complained
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 3^5 
 
 of the disappointment he had met with, 
 in not having the pleasure of her Majes- 
 ty's company that evening ; the Queen 
 excused herself, by declaring that the 
 Viscount's party was a previous engage- 
 ment, and the Countess of Essex al- 
 ledged that she must needs be in attend- 
 ance upon her Majesty. '' But could 
 your Highness's eye cull out no wanton 
 beauty ?" said the Queen. 
 
 '^ He wanted his setters, that could 
 spread their nets/' quoth the Lady 
 Frances, not giving the Prince time 
 to reply. 
 
 '^ In good sooth, fair lady,'' said the 
 Prince, " I did ; and it will go hard 
 with me, if I ere cast amorous glances 
 where any she at court is captivated 
 with the growing fortunes of a favour- 
 ite rather than a King's son." 
 
 The young Countess wounded deep- 
 ly by this speech, and to repay his 
 Highness, took advantage of an ex-
 
 326 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; Oii, 
 
 aggerated and infamous scandal then 
 current, and with frolicksome glee, sung 
 softly and sweetly in Prince Henry's 
 ear : — 
 
 " O the bofiny Earl of Murray, 
 He was the Queen's love." 
 
 The Earl of Murray, it is well known, 
 was accused of aiding or abetting the 
 attempt of the seditious Earl of Both- 
 well upon James's person, and the King 
 accordingly despatched Huntly with a 
 summons, to bring him to his presence. 
 The popular ballad of " Child Waters'^ 
 refers probably to the same catastrophe ; 
 and the conduct of the King, in en- 
 trusting this commission to Huntly, a 
 hostile and rival baron, casts a strong 
 suspicion, that the jealousy of James 
 had some foundation in truth, and 
 argues him to have been at least indif- 
 ferent as to the consequences that might
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 327 
 
 have been foreseen. Murray, when sum- 
 inoned, stood on his defence, and a shot 
 from his house killed one of Huntly's 
 friends. They then fired the house ; 
 Dunbar 5 the sheriff of Murray, rushed 
 out first, with the generous intention 
 of sacrificing* himself to preserve his 
 friend. But as Murray himself burst 
 through the flames, his long hair caught 
 fire, and by its light he was traced 
 down the rocks at the sea side, and 
 slain with repeated wounds. John 
 Gordon of Buckie, who struck the first 
 blow, insisted that Huntly should stab 
 the earl also ; and, as he wounded him 
 in the face, Murray said while expir- 
 ing, " Ye hae spoiled a better face than 
 yottr ain." 
 
 Prince Henry perfectly well under- 
 stood the application of the Countess's 
 song, though it does not appear from 
 his pious biographer that he was privy 
 to the calumny respecting his parentage,
 
 328 BLIGHTED AMBITION; OR, 
 
 afterwards recorded by Sir Edward 
 Peyton. Distressed by the singularly 
 pert words which the Countess warbled 
 in his ear, the Prince left the company 
 at Rochester's, and hastened to his own 
 masquers, where he had not long ar- 
 rived, ere a pair of strange masques 
 were announced, as Eloisa and Abelard. 
 
 " This is indeed an unlooked for 
 pleasure, " said the Prince, as the 
 masques entered, in the costume of the 
 twelfth century ; '' but who are they 
 that represent two of the most distin- 
 guished persons of their age in learning 
 and beauty, but for nothing more fa- 
 mous than for their unfortunate passion?" 
 
 To this question none could reply ; 
 at length chance or design on the part 
 of Eloisa, did for the Prince what his 
 courtiers were unable to accomplish. 
 She and Abelard were separated, and 
 Henry, to his great delight, found he 
 had in the person of Eloisa the good
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 329 
 
 fortune to discover the young and love- 
 ly Countess of Essex. 
 
 " Oh! my lord!" she whispered, 
 '^ pardon my offence, 'twas indeed wrong 
 not to ground all ray hopes on your 
 Highnesses favour — But the Earl of 
 Northampton — " 
 
 " Well, well, my dearest lady Count- 
 ess," replied the Prince, '^ the Earl of 
 Northampton, and the Viscount Eoches- 
 ter. I know the innate qualities of your 
 uncle derived from virtue, and the arro- 
 gance of the favourite, derived from the 
 grace of my liege the King. But what 
 would my Eloisa, thou lovely picture 
 of grace and nature, of virtue and 
 passion ?" 
 
 " Holy virgin !" exclaimed the Count- 
 ess, " do my ears deceive me ? Do I in- 
 deed hear the voice of his Highness iii 
 tones of pity for my offence, proclaim 
 my pardon ?"
 
 34D blighted jlmbitio.^ : or, 
 
 •• Then FU seal it with this buss/' 
 interrupted the Prince. 
 
 '' For shame. Henry/' said the Coiint- 
 e:s, replacing her vizard ; though in- 
 wardly she rejoiced, that she had caught 
 the eye and won the heart of his High- 
 ness. 
 
 *• Good, your Highness, good." whis- 
 pered a masque, who personated Friar 
 Baam. •* good. Prince Henry, good : 
 that spark of grace in thee shews some 
 Ii^re of thy royal bearing ; but beware 
 of Abelard, he hears himself too portly 
 for thy hoase.^ 
 
 *^ Magician, what meanest thou ? '* 
 demanded the Prince. 
 
 ^ That Abelard will conspire the ruin 
 of him who would steal the heart of 
 E!o!s,2.*' said the Frar. ^ But see, the 
 penitent nun has doft a glove — pray your 
 HighnesB to present it to her,^ said the 
 mssqne^ oflkring the glove to the Prince,
 
 THE mtlMI 43tD FALL OF SOUlSSSET. S31 
 
 and adding at the same time, " Tis a 
 softer skin than her own, or any other 
 that hath been worn by Rochester.*' 
 
 " Thanks, thoa philosophic monk,*' 
 replied the Prince : " but Henry Stuart 
 scorns it, since it hath been stretched 
 by another." '• By Rochester," said 
 the Prince to himself, musing' and saun- 
 tering in the group. 
 
 '*' Happy am I this hath taken/ said 
 the monk to himself, stealing c\- ^:^ ^'^ 
 crowd, •• the heroic qualities oi .7 
 Henry, that gave the law to his more 
 adyised actions, will yet raise him out of 
 the slumber of that distemper in which 
 he reaped the fruits of the Lady Fran- 
 ces's frailty." 
 
 " Villain!"' whispered Abelard into 
 the ear of Friar Bacon's representative, 
 " I'll cut thy henbane tongue by the 
 roots," £yid as he said this withdrew 
 his vizard, to discover who uttered the
 
 332 BLIGHTED AMBITION ; OR, 
 
 the threat. It was Rochester. Frieir 
 Bacon was beckoned at this moment by 
 Prince Henry to follow him, and did 
 not therefore disclose to Abelard who 
 he was. '^ Villain !" whispered Abelard 
 again, ^^ tell the Prince if thou darest, 
 that the fortunes of Rochester afford 
 more hope to the young Countess of 
 Essex, than the uncertain and hopeless 
 love of his Highness." 
 
 '' Hold, hold, hold," exclaimed Eloi- 
 sa, who had by this time joined Abelard. 
 " For Heaven's sake, and mine, hold, Ro- 
 chester, dearest Rochester, repress this 
 indignation — the Prince is gracious — in- 
 deed he is." Then turning to Friar 
 Bacon, she was about to speak, but the 
 monk prevented her by saying, " this 
 glove, religious lady, belongs to thee ; 
 I would have wished to have given the 
 Prince some pleasure, by making him 
 its bearer to thy fair hand, but he scora-
 
 THE RISE AND FALL OF SOMERSET. 33S 
 
 ed it, because, said his Highness, ^ it 
 had been stretched by another.' " 
 
 Fire flashed from the eyes of Eloisa, 
 but without betraying any of those symp- 
 toms of fear or weakness which throw 
 a charm around her sex in moments of 
 peril and agitation, she put her arm 
 within Abelard's, and they disappeared 
 from Friar Bacon's view. The Friar 
 did not, however, obey the beckoning 
 summons of Prince Henry, but mingled 
 among the masquers, who were in high 
 glee, entertaining themselves with the 
 representative of the town-crier of West- 
 minster, who was advertising a runaway 
 page, and offering a reward for his ap- 
 prehension. 
 
 But long ere the bellman had gone over 
 his " hue and cry," the company began 
 to separate, and Prince Henry retired to 
 bed, but not to sleep, for his rest was 
 disturbed by the reflections of the evening ; 
 but he could not help alternately admir-
 
 334 BLIGHTED AMBITION, &C. 
 
 ing and despising the gay and coquettish 
 Countess of Essex — " Yet, who could 
 that be with her in the character of 
 Abelard ? Rochester — it must have 
 been Rochester," said his Highness to 
 himself; " Well, that sleek favourite 
 shall not rival me in her sweet glances ; 
 I shall to-morrow, disguised, go to that 
 magician, Dr. Forman, and learn my 
 fate from his cabalistic art." 
 
 THE END OF TBE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON: 
 BtfACKELL AXD ARROWSMITH, JOHNSON'S-COURt.
 
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