so hard to reconcile with reason upon any motive, that if what he did on Sunday was all he had to explain, it might perhaps be thought not absolutely incredible. The fatal fact which it left utterly unexplained—the fact that an attack upon the Court had been under consideration for months, and planned in detail for weeks, before any apprehension of personal danger had been so much as rumoured, or any fear shown of going abroad without an armed escort,—this fact being known only to seven or eight persons, every one of whom was by the nature of the case bound on peril of his life to keep it secret, he trusted was in no danger of discovery. He came prepared therefore to take up this position for his defence.

2.

The opening of the case by the Queen's serjeant contained nothing to alarm him. Though the action was compared to that of Catiline, the acts recited were only those which everybody knew of. To the prayer for the Queen's safety with which the speech concluded he cheerfully said Amen, and strengthened it with an imprecation of his own upon the souls of all such as wished otherwise.

Nor was he less prepared for the law-logic of Coke; who, " suddenly rising," undertook to prove that the intention of the act was nothing less than "to take away the prince from the people." By the law, he who usurps the prince's authority is supposed to purpose the destruction of the prince; and he who assembles power and continues in arms against the prince's commandment-he who levies forces to take a town or fort, and hold it against the prince-usurps the prince's authority. All this Essex had of course expected. And when the orator went on to describe the particular mode of usurpation which he had attempted-how he had intended to take "not a town, but a city; not a city alone, but London the chief city; not only London, but the Tower of London; not only the Tower of London, but the royal palace and person of the prince, and to take away her life," though he was treading near dangerous ground, it might be hoped that he was merely constructing a rhetorical climax; that he knew only of the attempt to obtain help in the City, and that the ascending steps and crowning conclusion of the charge grew out of it by the ordinary rules of oratory, without better evidence. "Wondering and passionate gestures from the Earl, as clause rose over clause, breaking forth at the culmination into a vehement protestation that "he never wished harm to his Sovereign more than to his own soul," intimated to the audience how extravagant the imputation was. A hint concerning "a little black bag, wherein was contained the whole plot," touched

nearer: but the contents of that bag had been destroyed, and could only be known by guess or by report: any evidence founded upon that might therefore be contradicted and outfaced. But when Coke came at last to explain in detail what the plan was-how the Earl "had plotted to surprise the Court, and had disposed of the several places thereof to be guarded by special persons about him; how the gate had been committed to Sir Christopher Blount, the hall to Sir John Davies, the presence to Sir Charles Davers; while himself was to take possession of her Majesty's sacred person," and then proceed, among other things, to call a Parliament: it became evident that he had by some means or other got at the fatal truth. The statement was too circumstantial and too exactly true for a guess. And when he wound all up by promising to prove all this as clear as the sun by the evidence he had to show-" being for the most part examinations of such as were of the confederacy, all severed in prison, but agreeing in the chief points of their confessions "—it was clear that if the promise could be made good, the proposed defence would not meet the charge.

Not well knowing what to say, yet too uneasy to remain silent any longer, the Earl begged here to be allowed his turn to speak. Their memories, he said, were not strong enough to retain so many matters: he desired of their Lordships that they might have leave to answer, first to the accusations in general, and then to the particular evidences as they should be delivered: a request which, though very properly objected to by Coke, whose objection the Lord High Steward supported, was upon the advice of the Lord Chief Justice granted: after which during the whole course of the trial both the prisoners spoke whenever and whatever they pleased: with such results as we shall see.

Why Essex should have desired to speak at this juncture to the accusations in general, it is difficult to understand. For not yet knowing what he had to answer, he could not yet answer to the purpose; and what he had to say by way of appeal to the feelings of the audience would have had a better effect in immediate connexion with his reply. But a request to be fairly heard, with a brave protestation of indifference to the issue, except in so far as it concerned the fortunes of his friends and his own reputation for "fidelity and true allegiance towards her Majesty" (which was all he had to interpose at present), gave him for awhile the sympathy of an audience that way disposed. And then the business began.

Before I proceed to give an account of what followed, I may as

well state that I have taken for my authority a manuscript report of the trial in the possession of John Tollemache, Esq., of Helmingham Hall, in Suffolk, who kindly permitted me to take a copy of it for use in this work. The original possessor appears to have been Lionel Tollemache, of Bently, whose name is written on the titlepage; and I am informed that it has always been in the possession of the family. The Tollemaches were connected with the Earl of Essex, and it is to him that the reporter (though nowhere wanting in fairness and intelligence) has evidently paid especial attention: his speeches being set forth at greater length than the rest, and his behaviour throughout the trial particularly described; a peculiarity which (as the case for the defence is to be found only in the Earl's own speeches at the trial, of which we have no authorized report, whereas the case on behalf of the Queen is fully known to us through an official statement published by her own authority) gives this manuscript the greater value. As the production moreover of one who set down only what he heard and saw, I take it to be a better authority for the actual order of the proceedings than the report given in the State Trials; whether in its original shape, or as reproduced by Mr. Jardine with additions and variations in the "Library of Entertaining Knowledge." For in both those versions there is evidence of patchwork; documents not contained in the original manuscript having been supplied from elsewhere, and their places assigned according to the compiler's conjecture, without other evidence; whence arise some important differences, not only in the substance and general effect of many speeches, but in the very order and connexion in which the most important parts of the evidence were brought forward: an order which it is necessary in some cases to know before we can understand the true import of the defence. On questions of this kind I take this Tollemache MS. to be the more trustworthy guide, and where my story differs from the received story, which it will be found to do in some not unimportant particulars, it is to be understood that this manuscript is my authority.

4.

The order in which the evidence was brought forward seemed at first to promise favourably for the defence. The action having been in fact an enforced and unpremeditated deviation from the original design, without reference to which its true character could not be made intelligible, the most natural way of introducing the subject would have been to begin with the proof of what had been intended and then to show what was actually done. But Coke began at the other end :

opening the case with the proceedings at Essex House on the arrival of the Councillors, and selecting moreover for his opening evidence the very worst witness probably on his list. Mr. Widdrington of the North was one of the Earl's own party and had followed him into the City. He stated in his examination, among other things, that being alarmed at the violence of the language which he heard used with respect to the Councillors, he had warned the Earl of it, who went away from him without giving any answer; after which "going down amongst the company, he perceived amongst them that order was given that if any violence was offered to the house, or that the Earl of Essex miscarried in London, that then the Lord Keeper and the Lord Chief Justice should be presently killed."

That he was the only witness who could speak to this last point, while it explains the value which Coke attached to this deposition, supplied Essex with a great advantage in answering it. The charge rested upon the evidence of a man personally implicated, who was telling a story favourable to himself, speaking of things of which there must have been many other witnesses, yet not corroborated by any other, and who moreover was not himself at hand to vouch his words or answer questions. Essex excepted to it on these grounds, and his exception seems to have been allowed; for nothing more was heard of this deposition or this charge; and a better and fitter witness was immediately brought forward.

This was the Lord Chief Justice; whose story, very simply and quietly told, and confined to what he had himself seen or heard and what the rest could testify, fully proved the Earl's refusal to disperse his company or to explain his grievance, being required to do so by the Lord Keeper, and the forcible detention of their persons by his authority while he himself went into the City. But all this lay within the lines of the Earl's proposed defence; who without disputing any of the facts hastened to explain them and show that they implied no disloyalty. It was true that he had detained the Councillors: but it was only for their own security. "Having had divers advertisements both the night before and that present morning of preparations by his enemies to assault him in his own house," he feared that in the tumults which were likely to ensue they might perish. It was true that he had not dissolved his company at their bidding: but it was because he could not have done it: for just at that moment "the people abroad in the street with a great and sudden outcry said they should all be slain," at which time they thought their enemies had

1 I quote here from the written examination in the State Paper Office. The Tollemache MS. represents him as saying that "order was left by the Earl that they should be killed if he should miscarry in London."

beset the house. It was true that they went to the City for protection, not to the Council: but it was for a like reason—“ they feared they should be intercepted by their enemies to their uttermost danger." Of his refusal to communicate his case privately to the Lord Keeper, which could not have been explained by the same motive, he does not appear to have offered any explanation. But the ground of defence implied in all these answers was distinct and explicit: Everything had been done under the belief that he was in immediate danger, not of false accusation, not of detraction, not of Court-malice, but of an attack by armed men. And since the clearest proof that he had no reason for believing such a thing was no proof that he did not in fact believe it, it is possible that he might have made a plausible stand upon that ground, had the case against him ended there. But what if it could be shown that he had himself been making preparations for an armed attack upon the Court some weeks before? Such preparations could have no relation to any such alarm as that to which he imputed his actions on Sunday. Leaving the excuse therefore (for which he does not seem to have been prepared) unanswered at the moment, Coke proceeded at once to produce evidence of the preliminary consultations.

5.

First came the examination of Sir Ferdinando Gorge; in which was revealed, among other things, "the consultation at Drury House, where was moved the taking of the City, the Tower, and the Court;" and where, upon a debate "how all or some of them might be surprised," Sir John Davis had "undertaken to frame a plot to take the Court; designing Sir Christopher Blunt to make good the gate; Sir John Davis the hall; Sir Charles Davers to possess the great chamber and to take hold of the guards' halberts and to keep the company of the presence from issuing forth the Lords themselves to pass immediately to her Majesty. But" (it was added) "upon these motions nothing was resolved, but referred to the Earl of Essex his own ordering."

:

These disclosures (the substance of which I quote from the contemporary report in preference to the written examination, because I do not otherwise know how much of the written examination was read at this stage in the proceedings) compelled Essex to take up on the sudden a new position. It was plain that such a consultation could not have been forced upon him by fear of being beset in his house or waylaid at his door. What account should he give of it? His first impulse was to demand that Sir Ferdinando should be sent