Chapter XXX: Mr. Attorney

T

Supersedes Coke

HAT Francis Bacon, philosopher, was a man of wisdom and high ideals goes without saying. But we, who are interested in the Overbury mystery, have only to deal with Francis Bacon, man of the world, and architect of his own fortune. Bacon's political career was a thing of intrigue and chicane. His boundless ambition, long thwarted by Coke and his party, his love of magnificence, his lust for power, prompted him to make the fall of Somerset a steppingstone to the legal throne. Coke, the Huddler, as he called him, was to be huddled off the stage that Bacon might have the reversion of the Chancellorship. As he had been Essex's man and deserted him, so, in a lesser degree, he had been Somerset's man, and was "Mean men must adhere' thinking of deserting him. was one of his maxims, but the meanness of adhering never troubled him when it was necessary to his plans, and he was now making up his mind to adhere to Villiers as soon as it was certain that Villiers adhered successfully to the King.

Early in 1616 the King added Bacon's name to the Commission to inquire into the guilt of Somerset, and from this time onwards Coke, though he continues to examine pastrycooks and menials and note down foolish gossip about the mysterious bunch of grapes that had poisoned poor Prince Henry, plays no real part in the

trials of the Earl and Countess of Somerset.

The Earl had first been placed in open arrest with Sir Oliver St. John at the Dean of Westminster's house,

but by now had been taken to the Tower. The unfortunate Countess was nearing the time of her confinement. She was placed in the care of Sir William Smithe at the Cockpit, but was afterwards moved to a house in Blackfriars. The poor woman was indeed in terrible distress. Mrs. Turner had declared to Dr. Whiting that she intended to destroy herself and her child. But Smithe said that he did not believe she contemplated such a crime, as she had said to him: "If I were rid of my burden it is my death that is looked for and my death they shall have." She was ready to expiate her sin with her own death on the scaffold, but she did not harbour the thought of destroying her child.

The King provided her with special nurses and attendants, and her daughter was born on December 9th and the wretched mother was permitted to remain with her child until March 27th when she, too, was sent to join her husband in the Tower, there to await her trial. They would have placed her in the room where Overbury died, but that she begged with tears and shrieks to be taken anywhere but there, and Sir George More, the new lieutenant, moved to mercy by her terrors, cleared out the belongings of Sir Walter Raleigh, who had been released to prepare for his last disastrous voyage to the Orinoco, and permitted her the use of his late quarters.

Bacon was always cautious to make certain that a new sun had really risen before he worshipped, and he was equally careful to make sure that an old sun had really set before he turned his back upon it. As an old writer says: "He sucked in experience with his milk, being inured to policy as early as to his grammar." James thought and said that all his lawyers were knaves, but Bacon was, of course, something far greater than a knave, though he could stoop as low as James himself to succeed in his selfish ambitions. At this moment his ambition was to be Lord Chancellor. Egerton Lord Ellesmere was an old man of seventy-six, failing in health, and Bacon was attending him assiduously, watching his

How

downward steps to the grave out of his viper's eyes, but
with a face of outward sympathy and sorrow.
far he would have interested himself as yet in young
Villiers or thrown himself into the uncongenial task of
prosecuting his former patron, the Earl of Somerset,
but for the fact that there was a pending vacancy on
the Woolsack, no one can say for sure. But with such a
site to build on, the architect of his own fortune had no
choice but to prepare his plans.

The Commissioners were sitting in the Star Chamber one January afternoon discussing the course to be taken over Somerset's matter. Coke, as usual, was reading out some new tales of witchcraft he had discovered. The peers listened with reluctant respect. The Lord Chancellor dozed and nodded his head, and Mr. Attorney made notes with his quill of other matters that he was bringing forward. One of the witnesses had mentioned Sir John Roper's name as a possible victim.

Well, he is out of it," remarked the Attorney-General, " for I heard of his death three weeks since.'

"If that be so, who shall have his patent office that was granted in reversion to the Earl of Somerset ? " asked Lord Zouch.

Coke laid down his writings. When it came to a matter of place and patents and pelf Coke was as keen as the rest to discuss the affair.

"There will be a struggle as usual," said the Lord Chancellor," as to whether it be in the King's gift." "Somerset's reversions are Villiers' now, I take it," said one of the lords, with a knowing look round.

"Is that the law, chief?" asked Bacon maliciously, with a merry laugh.

The old man shook his head. "No, Mr. Attorney, I will not wrastle now in my latter times."

He was not to be drawn to argument and indiscretion, and it was not Bacon's cue to bait him too hard, so he nodded approval, saying: "My Lord, you speak like a wise man."

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"Well," replied Coke angrily, "they have had no luck with the place that have had it."

"But those days are past," said Mr. Attorney, "and our young friend, Sir George, will live long to enjoy it." "Let us pray it be so," said the Chancellor.

The subject dropped, and they turned to discuss the destruction of the King's old favourite, which was the business in hand.

At the close of every sitting Bacon was wont to report at length to the King on the steps to be taken, and never did he fail to send by the same messenger a merry note of gossip to his new patron, Sir George Villiers, whose true and devoted servant he now was, and through whose interest with the King he hoped to move into the Lord Chancellor's shoes as a reward for the destruction of Somerset.

How Bacon had so rapidly attached himself to Sir George is not known. His position would make it easy for him to ingratiate himself with a young man as yet feeling his way warily along the slippery paths of royal favour. One may believe, if one wishes to, that Mr. Attorney was attracted by Villiers' open and easy manners and gracious carriage and that the delicate, gentle youth looked up as yet to the man of wisdom and was honoured by his correspondence. In historical and biographical matters whatever fable you fancy is yours to command, and it is easy to find sanction for the pleasantest romances of friendship in the intercourse of the great.

But from the point of view of the Earl of Somerset the hard facts were these. His acquittal threatened Villiers' position very nearly. His conviction was a service to the King which both he and his favourite were bound to reward. Bacon had money beyond the dreams of avarice, but there were professional heights to which he desired to climb, and unless the King gave him a hand he must remain below. Now the King's hand was held in loving custody by the handsome, effeminate youth who was always at the King's side.

This was, I fancy, the case for opinion that Bacon had stated to himself, and he had advised that a cheery friendship with the King's favourite was a necessary step in his action to obtain the Chancellorship.

Bacon, being a man of great wisdom, clear insight, and, if not inconvenient at the moment, of accustomed probity, it is interesting to watch him at work on the indictment of the Earl and Countess of Somerset. He was endowed with the gift of industry, which in the law is a matter of far greater import than brilliancy. His first task was to carry away to his chambers at Gray's Inn all those hundreds of examinations which Coke had collected and copied and to make a précis of them. One can see him ploughing through the mud of them, picking out the few relevant facts they contained and casting aside into a rubbish heap on the floor the great bulk of nonsense Coke had laboriously written for his clerk to collect and parcel together and return to the Chief Justice.

The hearsay and tattle that had pleased Coke was of no purpose to this clear-headed man. He was soon aware that the case had been mulled and muddled from the start, and that he would have to reorganise and reset the unsavoury debris, craftily conceal the unsubstantial nature of the meal he was preparing for the court, and add some delicate flavour of suggestion to captivate the palates of the peers who were to try Somerset.

One thing was clear enough. To try Somerset, before the Countess was tried, was courting acquittal and disaster. The case against her was clear and overwhelming, that at least she had conspired to kill Overbury and suborned poisoners. Once convict her, and the chances of convicting Somerset were greater.

It was not the Attorney-General's business to consider whether Overbury was ever poisoned at all. An acute mind like Bacon's must have wondered whether or not he did die of poison or of disease. There was one man who probably knew, the jolly fat physician beloved of