Two years before the time at which we have now arrived, Sir Thomas Overbury, Somerset's great friend and adviser, died in the Tower, to which he had been committed for contempt. In the summer of 1615 a report reached Winwood that there was reason for suspecting that he died by violence. This report he mentioned casually to the Earl of Shrewsbury as a blot upon the reputation of Sir Gervase Hellwysse, who was Lieutenant of the Tower at the time. Hellwysse, hearing of it from the Earl, volunteered a statement to Winwood; in which he admitted that there had indeed been a design to poison Overbury by the hands of Richard Weston, the under-keeper; but asserted that he had himself detected, dissuaded, and taken measures to prevent, though he had not revealed it. This Winwood reported to the King, who immediately gave orders that Hellwysse should be required to set down his declaration in writing. In the declaration which he drew up in obedience to this command Hellwysse admitted not only that he had himself discovered the intention of Weston to poison Overbury, but that he had since heard from Weston that Overbury was really murdered, and that it was done with a clyster administered afterwards by an apothecary's boy, who had been bribed. The only actor in the business that he knew of, besides Weston, was (he said) one Mrs. Turner; who, as soon as she heard that the case was likely to be inquired into, had sent Weston to sound him and find out how much he knew, and what part he was likely to take. But he admitted that, though he had "set down the truth," it was "peradventure not the whole truth," and as it seems that in his first communication to Winwood he had excused his own silence as proceeding from his fear of "impeaching or accusing great persons," the words were understood as an intimation that the Somersets were in some way implicated.1

IS. P. Dom. James I., vol. lxxxi. no. 86.

This declaration was dated the 10th of September. On reading it, the King, who does not appear to have heard of the rumour before, referred the matter to "some Councillors," with directions to inquire in the first place whether there was any ground for such an imputation upon the Somersets; and if they found it to be a groundless calumny, then who was the author of it. The case proved on inquiry to be so grave that it was thought expedient to put it into the hands of Coke, as the man most practised in such investigations and the highest officer of justice; who appears to have entered on the work on the 27th,-the day before the meeting of the Council upon the Parliament question. Examinations were taken by him daily during the next week; and though the matter was still dark, the evidence began to tell so strongly against the Somersets that he thought it prudent to strengthen himself with the help of persons of higher rank than his own. For this purpose he went himself to Royston to speak with the King: who upon his representation of the state of the case, joined in commission with him the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Lenox, and Lord Zouch. The date of their commission is not positively known; but I have little doubt that Mr. Gardiner is right in inferring that it was delivered to Coke in person at Royston on the evening of Friday the 13th of October. The first meeting of the Commissioners was on the 15th. On the 16th Somerset (who had in the meantime been to Royston and back)3 finding that he could not prevent the inquiry. from going on, took a step which tended to increase the suspicion against him. Being still at large, and still holding the seals of his office, he sent a pursuivant, accompanied by a constable and a locksmith, to the house of Weston's son, with a warrant "to search for bonds and writings concerning Mrs. Hynde;" under pretence of which, "divers writings concerning Mrs. Turner" were seized and carried away. The Commissioners, seeing that Mrs. Turner was at the time the King's prisoner on a charge which was under investigation by the King's Commission, considered this so great a contempt that they at once ordered both Somerset and the Countess to keep their several chambers, and see nobody except their own necessary servants. And when they found that, in spite of this, the very next morning Somerset had endeavoured to get a message conveyed to Mrs. Turner, they committed him to close custody under the charge of Sir Oliver St. John. All which having reported to the King on the 18th,

1 Directions read in Court at the arraignment of the Countess, and the original shewn to the Peers. See State Trials.

2 'Archæologia,' vol. xli.

3 Gondomar's letter printed by Mr. Gardiner in the 'Archeologia,' vol. xli. The Judges of the King's Bench to the King, 18 Oct. S. P. Dom. James I.

VOL. V.

P

they received a message from him the next day signifying approval of their proceedings, and encouraging them to prosecute the business.

So far the inquiry had been conducted with zeal, diligence, and discretion by all parties. The King had entrusted it to Commissioners unexceptionable in character and position, and given them full liberty of action. The Commissioners in dealing with it had followed the order prescribed by law, which required that the principal should be convicted before the accessary were tried, and regarded as principal not the man who contrives and procures, but the man who executes the deed. And though the evidence implicated the Somersets only as accessaries, there can be no doubt that it fully justified the Commissioners in placing them under restraint in the meantime, that they might be forthcoming, if the principals were found guilty, to answer for their own part in the transaction.

But the next proceeding, in which Coke acted on his own judgment without consulting the other members of the Commission, was not so judicious. The case against Weston, who was accused of actually administering the poison, was now supposed to be complete ; and on the 19th of October he was brought up for trial. In order that the trial might proceed according to law, it was necessary that he should "put himself upon his country." This he refused to do. In that case (strange to say) the law had then only one weapon by which it could enforce its own authority. It could order him to be put under physical pressure till he either consented or died. The nature of which alternative-the peine forte et dure-having been carefully explained to him, the trial was adjourned for four days in hope that he would think better of it. So far well. But there was a large audience that day in Court, including "some of the nobility and many gentlemen of great quality," who had gathered to hear the news, and would be much disappointed if they were sent empty away. For their benefit the Judges thought meet (I use Coke's own words) "to have openly and at large read the confessions of the said Richard Weston, and the testimonies of others, as well concerning the fact of the said Richard Weston as the Earl and Countess of Somerset, and Mrs. Turner; without sparing any of them, or omitting anything material against them." This was required (Coke said) by "the necessity and course of the evidence," because "it appeared thereby that the said Richard Weston was procured and wagered by some of them." A strange reason for a strange proceeding! For if the story could not be told without what amounted to a declaration from the Bench of the guilt of parties who had not yet been so much as accused, it would surely have been better to leave it untold. All that the audience needed to know was why the trial did not go

on; and for that it would have been enough to say that according to law a prisoner who refused to put himself upon his country could not be tried, and Weston refused to put himself upon his country. But Coke had not yet arrived at the great principle which he was destined to discover before he died; and whether it were that he wished to commit the King irrevocably to the prosecution of Somerset, or only that he could not hold in his secret any longer, he certainly did think it right on that occasion for the Judges of the King's Bench "to deliver their opinion beforehand of a criminal case which was to come before them judicially,"—an opinion not private but conspicuously public,—and of a case in which they had not yet heard one word of what the accused persons had to say in explanation or defence. It is true that the story was told not by Coke himself, but by Sir Lawrence Hyde, the Queen's Attorney, who conducted the prosecution: but being told by direction and in presence of the Judges, it could not have been mistaken by the public for anything less than the declaration of the Court. And when Weston was persuaded at last to plead, and brought up again for trial on the 23rd of October, it had to be told over again.

2.

Before the trial commenced (into the details of which I need not enter, as Bacon had nothing to do with it) Weston expressed a hope. that they were not making a net to catch the little fishes and let the great ones break through: words which seemed to imply a charge against others guiltier than himself. Coupled with the extraordinary revelations which had been made in Court, they naturally caused a great deal of curiosity and excitement, and the friends both of Overbury and of Somerset were impatient to hear the interpretation. On the morning of the 25th, the day appointed for his execution, a distinguished company assembled at Tyburn to hear his last words; and when it appeared that he was going to die without making any further disclosure, the following scene occurred, as described the next day by one who had a principal part in it.

:

"At the execution of Richard Weston there were present together Sir John Hollis, Sir Thomas Vavasor, Sir John Wentworth, Mr. Sackvill, Sir John Ayres, Sir William Mounson, Sir Henry Vane, and others and many of them spake together, and asked Weston whether he had poisoned Sir Thomas Overbury or not? Whereupon this examinate asked Weston whether he poisoned Sir Thomas Overbury or no? Who answered

1 See above, Chap. IV. § 6.

that he had left his mind behind with the Lord Chief Justice: and remembereth that upon his question to Weston, Sir John Wentworth said 'Sir John, it is nobly said,-ask him again :' but this examinate, seeing advantage taken of his words, held his peace.'

This examinate was Sir John Lidcot, brother-in-law of Overbury, who appears to have asked the question in the expectation that Weston would confirm the story that had been told, and so satisfy the world. Sir John Wentworth on the other hand was an ally of Somerset's, and urged him to repeat the question in the hope that he would repudiate it. On both sides the curiosity was natural enough, as we see to this day that whenever a man is convicted of murder with mystery there is always an intense curiosity to obtain a confession from him before he dies; but when a man had been by due process of law found guilty and was about to suffer the penalty, to ask him publicly whether he was guilty or not, was an affront to justice which could not be permitted or passed over. Several of the parties were committed to prison, and it was resolved to bring two of them -Sir John Wentworth and Sir John Hollis-before the Star Chamber and along with them one Thomas Lumsden who, though not present on this occasion, had been guilty of a kindred offence in sending the King an account of the first day's proceedings in Weston's case, which being referred to Coke was pronounced "false and malicious." It was Bacon's duty to prepare the information against them and it appears to have been the first proceeding connected with the Overbury trials in which he had to take any part, either private or public. But before the case came on, another im

:

portant step had been taken.

When the King first heard of the adjournment of Weston's trial, he wanted him to be confronted in the interval with the Countess and with Mrs. Turner, and, if needful, with the Earl himself.2 This, if it could have been done, would probably have cleared up several points which remain to this day doubtful. But Coke told him that a re-examination or confronting, after a public conviction of the party delinquent, was not such as had been used in the course of his laws."8 And it was not till the 25th of October, after Weston's execution, that Somerset was examined. The result of his examination that afternoon, and again on the 28th, was a report, signed by all the Commissioners, that there was "vehement suspicion, and that the matter upon consideration of the examinations and testimonies was

The examination of Sir John Lidcot, Knight, taken this 26th of October, 1615. S. P. Dom. James I., vol. lxxxii. no. 109.

2 Letter to Coke, 20 Oct.: to the Commissioners, 21 Oct. S. P. Dom. James I. 3 The Judges to the King, 22 Oct. S. P. Dom. James I., vol. lxxii. no. 86.