tion towards your Lordship shall have no end; but I will still wish your Honour greater, and rest myself

Daventry, Sept. 3, 1617.

Your Honour's servant,

HENRY YELVERTON.

I beseech your Lordship burn this letter.

A day or two later, Bacon got some further light as to the state of the weather by the following letter from Buckingham himself conveying the King's answer to his last.

It would appear from the first sentence that some of his own letters to Buckingham at this crisis have been lost; for there are none remaining which answer the description.

My Lord,'

I have received so many letters lately from your Lordship that I cannot answer them severally: but the ground of them all being only this, that your Lordship feareth I am so incensed against you that I will hearken to every information that is made unto me; this one letter may well make answer unto them all. As his Majesty is not apt to give ear to any idle report against men of your place; so for myself I will answer that it is far from my disposition to take any advantage in that kind; and for your Lordship's unkind dealing with me in this matter of my brother's, time will try all. His Majesty hath given me commandment to make this answer in his name to your letter to him, that he needeth not to make any other answer to you than that which in that letter you make to yourself, That you know his Majesty to be so judicious that whatsoever he heareth, he will keep one ear open to you; which being indeed his own princely disposition, you may be assured of his gracious favour in that kind. I will not trouble your Lordship with any longer discourse at this time, being to meet you so shortly, where will be better trial of all that hath passed than can be made by letters. So I rest Your Lordship's at command, G. BUCKINGHAM.

Warwick, Sept. 5.

2

Such was the disposition in which the King and Buckingham were prepared to meet Bacon. But he had the advantage of a case in which there was really no just ground of complaint whatever; unless it were that he had refused to acknowledge the right of a father to break into other men's houses in order to rescue his

1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 230. Original. Docketed in Bacon's hand, "Buc. ult. 5 Sep."

2 The words "at Woodstock" followed: but a line is drawn through them.

daughter from her mother; for he had not interfered otherwise, except by offering advice with reasons, and those he had not pressed after they had been heard and rejected. Of the particulars of the meeting we have no account from any authority that can be trusted; for Weldon does not in my opinion deserve to be so much as quoted. But from the correspondence which has been preserved I gather that presently after the King's return to London (which was on the 15th of September) Bacon desired to speak with him about a matter concerning his own safety, suggested by a case then before the Council: and that on the 21st or 22nd of September he had an interview with Buckingham, at which he put into his hands a note of what he wanted to say to the King, and at the same time entered into explanations with regard to himself. The result will appear in the two letters which follow.

FOR THE KING.2

That which for the present I would have spoken with his Majesty about, was a matter wherein time may be precious, being upon the tenderest point of all others. For though the particular occasion may be despised, (and yet nothing ought to be despised in this kind,) yet the counsel thereupon I conceive to be most sound and necessary to avoid future perils.

There is an examination taken within these few days by Mr. Attorney concerning one Baynton, or Baynam, (for his name is not yet certain,) attested by two witnesses, that the said Baynton, without any apparent shew of being overcome with drink, (otherwise than so as mought make him less wary to keep secrets,) said that he had been lately with the King to petition him for reward of service, which was denied him, whereupon it was twice in his mind to have killed his Majesty. God ever bless him.3

1 That this was the real case we know upon Coke's own authority. In his letter to Buckingham, 15 July, 1617, complaining of the order to proceed against him in the Star Chamber, he justifies his own proceeding upon two grounds. First, he feared that the King might suspect him of complicity in the conveying away of his daughter; and secondly, Sir Edmond Withipole refused to give her up to him when he demanded her. See Lord Campbell's Chief Justices, I. 298. He would not have held himself justified in breaking the door if he could have got her by a demand; but he did hold himself justified if he could not get her otherwise. The Star Chamber proceeding was to have tried that point of law.

2 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 75. Copy or fair draft in Bacon's hand. The fly leaf is gone. But there is written on the back (in the later hand in which endorsements are usually inserted when there is no fly leaf), "September 21. To revive the Commission of Suits. For the King."

3 This sentence is written between the lines-evidently inserted on reading the paper over.

The man is not yet apprehended, and said by some to be mad or half mad; which in my opinion is not the less dangerous; for such men commonly do most mischief, and the manner of the speaking imported no distraction.

But the counsel I would out of my care ground hereupon is, That his Majesty would revive the commission for suits, which hath been now for these three years or more ill laid down. For it may prevent any the like wicked cogitation which the devil may put into the mind of a roarer or swaggerer upon a denial : and besides it will free his Majesty from much importunity, and save his coffers also. For I am sure when I was a commissioner, in three whole years space there passed scarce ten suits that were allowed; and I doubt now, upon his Majesty's coming home from this journey, he will be much troubled with petitions and suits; which maketh me think this remedy more seasonable. It is not meant that suits generally should pass that way; but only such suits as his Majesty would be rid on.

THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM TO THE Lord Keeper.'

My Lord,

I have made his Majesty acquainted with your note concerning that wicked fellow's speeches, which his Majesty contemneth, as is usual to his great spirit in these cases; but notwithstanding, his Majesty is pleased that it shall be exactly tried, whether this foul-mouthed fellow was taken either with drunkenness or madness when he spake it. And as for your Lordship's advice for setting up again the commissioners for suits, his Majesty saith there will be time enough for thinking upon that at his coming to Hampton Court.

But his Majesty's direction in answer of your letter hath given me occasion to join hereunto a discovery unto you of mine inward thoughts, proceeding upon the discourse you had with me this day. For I do freely confess that your offer of submission unto me, and in writing (if so I would have it), battered so the unkindness that I had conceived in my heart for your behaviour towards me in my absence, as out of the sparks of my old affection towards you I went to sound his Majesty's intention how he means to behave himself towards you, specially in any public meeting; where I found on the one part his Majesty so little satisfied with your late answer unto him, which he counted (for I protest I use his own terms) confused and childish, and his rigorous resolution on the other part so fixed that he would put some public exemplary mark upon you, as I pro

1 Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 265. Copy in Bacon's hand. No fly leaf: indorsed, as usual in that case, "A letter of reconciliation from my Lord Buckingham after his Majesty's return from Scotland."

test the sight of his deep-conceived indignation quenched my passion, making me upon the instant change from the person of a party into a peace-maker; so as I was forced upon my knees to beg of his Majesty that he would put no public act of disgrace upon you. And as I dare say no other person would have been patiently heard in this suit by his Majesty but myself, so did I (though not without difficulty) obtain thus much, That he would not so far disable you from the merit of your future service, as to put any particular mark of disgrace upon your person. Only thus far his Majesty protesteth, That upon the conscience of his office he cannot omit (though laying aside all passion) to give a kingly reprimand at his first sitting in council to so many of his councillors as were then here behind and were actors in this business, for their ill behaviour in it. Some of the particular errors committed in this business he will name, but without accusing any particular persons by name.

Thus your Lordship seeth the fruits of my natural inclination; and I protest all this time past it was no small grief unto me to hear the mouth of so many upon this occasion open to load you with innumerable malicious and detracting speeches, as if no music were more pleasing to my ears than to rail of you: which made me rather regret the ill nature of mankind, that like dogs love to set upon him that they see once snatched at. And, to conclude, my Lord, you have hereby a fair occasion so to make good hereafter your reputation by your sincere service to his Majesty, as also by your firm and constant kindness to your friends, as I may (your Lordship's old friend) participate of the comfort and honour that will thereby come to you. Thus I rest at last

Your Lordship's faithful friend and servant.

G. B.

The force of our old kindness hath made me set down this in writing unto you, which some that have deserved ill of me in this action would be glad to obtain by word of mouth, though they be far enough from it for ought I yet see. But I beseech your Lordship to reserve this secretly to yourself only, till our meeting at Hampton Court, lest his Majesty should be highly offended for a cause that I know.

TO THE EARL OF BUCKINGHAM,1

My ever best Lord, now better than yourself,

Your Lordship's pen or rather pencil hath pourtrayed towards me such magnanimity and nobleness and true kindness, as methinketh I see the image of some ancient virtue, and not any thing of these times. It is the line of my life, and not the lines of my letter, that must express my thankfulness: wherein if I fail, then God fail me, and make me as miserable as I think myself at this time happy by this reviver, through his Majesty's

Gibson Papers, vol. viii. f. 76. Copy by Meautys.

singular clemency, and your incomparable love and favour. God preserve you, prosper you, and reward you for your kindness to Your raised and infinitely obliged friend and servant, FR. BACON, C. S.

Sept. 22, 1617.

To pretend reconciliation when he was not reconciled was never the vice of Buckingham: and considering the depth of the offence which he had conceived against Bacon for his conduct real or supposed, and the violence of the enmity which commonly succeeded in him to a renounced friendship, we may believe that on this occasion he had really achieved a considerable victory over himself, and that he deserved more of the credit which Bacon gave him than might otherwise seem to be his due, seeing that he did but give way where he had been grossly in the wrong. But when a man is disposed to do what is right, it is well to make it as agreeable to him as possible; and Bacon was probably well advised in magnifying the favour, and consenting to receive as generosity what was in fact nothing more than justice.

Buckingham being thus pacified, the King, whose resentments though lively were never long lived, was easily persuaded to receive Bacon back into favour, and the old relations were presently re-established. But when friends have once quarrelled, they never can be to each other quite what they were before. During the quarrel they see each other with different eyes and learn to construe matters in less favourable senses. Thus they come to know many things which they did not know before, and which no reconciliation can make them forget. All this had happened within six months of the time when Bacon stood highest in the favour of both; and he had done nothing to deserve it. It was impossible for him henceforward to forget how precarious a possession their friendship and favour was, and how little he could depend for its continuance upon either diligence, or ability, or fidelity, or even upon the most anxious and affectionate solicitude for their good. With this difference however, things returned into their old course: and the memorial which follows of business to be done at the King's first meeting with his Council shows no traces of the storm which had so nearly thrown the whole business of the Council into other hands.' It bears no date, but must have been written a little before the 27th of September, if the letter from the Council to the King upon the state of his

1 In Stephens's catalogue I find among the letters from Toby Matthew to Bacon the following entry "28 Sep. 1617.-In despight of my hand.-Congratu lating his deliverance from a storm."