Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

5.

Who was the mover of the inquiry does not appear; probably some suitor who had been aggrieved by overcharges; but the complaint afterwards took the form of a bill exhibited against Mill in the Star Chamber: the consideration of which was by the Queen referred to Egerton, Buckhurst, Cecil, Fortescue, and Popham; and the end was that the complaints were dismissed, the proceedings cancelled, and the Commissioners ordered to settle what fees, etc., were fit to be allowed in future, and "the same to confirm unto the said William Mill." This however was not till February, 1600-1. The two following letters, relating to some of the intermediate stages of the business, though a little out of chronological order, may as well be added here.

The first explains itself. For the second (which has no date), I am by no means certain even that it relates to this subject; but I do not know of any other which the allusions seem so easily to fit. The "offers of composition" I suppose to be proposals made to Bacon by the prosecuting party to buy off the prosecution. Having a pecuniary interest in the maintenance of the fees which were attacked, it might be hoped that he would be willing to pay for having them let alone.

TO THE LORD KEEPER.2

It may please your right honourable good Lordship,

I have understood that your Lordship hath an intention to reduce the office of Clerk of the Star Chamber to the just and lawful fees, and to purge it of the exactions newly imposed, and I was advised by a wise friend to desire humbly of your Lordship to be called unto it. But truly, my good Lord, I am determined not to meddle in it. First, because my time is not yet come in presence, at least for anything doth yet judicially appear. Next, because I trust your Lordship's judgment better than mine own; and sure I am, as long as it is in your hands, terminus antiquus non movebitur. Lastly, because looking into the matter

1 1st February, 1600-1. Egerton Papers, p. 316. It was probably about the appointment of these commissioners that the Queen was speaking to Bacon on the following occasion-I suppose in the autumn of 1597. "Mr. Bacon, after he had been vehement in Parliament against depopulation and enclosures" [concerning which see below, p. 82]," and that soon after the Queen told him that she had referred the hearing of Mr. Mill's cause to certain counsellors and judges, and asked him how he liked of it, answered, 'Oh Madam, my mind is known; I am against all enclosures, but especially against enclosed justice.'"-Works, VII. p. 169. 2 Bridgwater House MSS. Vol. 11. No. 17***. Original; own hand.

at first, and since better informing myself, I find the ground too watery for me or any other to stand upon. And therefore as at first I always protested to sever myself from anything that was unjust, so the same course I hold still, ever desiring your Lordship as I have heretofore done that in safting this unlawful prize, no lawful fraught may be prejudiced, which I know perfitly your Lordship will do; and to your Lordship I wholly leave it. So I commend your good Lordship to the preservation of the Divine Majesty. From Gray's Inn, this 22nd of Jan., 1597. At your Lordship's honourable commandments, Very humbly and particularly,

TO THE QUEEN.1

FR. BACON.

It may please your sacred Majesty,

I would not fail to give your Majesty my most humble and due thanks for your royal choice of such commissioners in the great Star Chamber cause; being persons, besides their honour, of such science and integrity. By whose report I doubt not but your Majesty will find that which you have been heretofore informed (both by my Lord Keeper and by some much meaner person) touching the nature of that cause, to be true. This preparatory hearing doth already assail me with new and enlarged offers of composition; which if I had borne a mind to have hearkened unto, this matter had been quenched long ago, without any benefit to your Majesty. But your Majesty's benefit is to me in greater regard than mine own particular: trusting to your Majesty's gracious disposition and royal word, that your Majesty will include me in any extraordinary course of your sovereign pleasure, which your Majesty shall like to take in this cause. The other man I spoke to your Majesty of, may within these two terms be in the same straits between your Majesty's justice and mercy that this man now is, if your Majesty be so pleased. So most humbly craving pardon for my presuming to seek access for these few lines, I recommend your Majesty to the most precious custody and best preservation of the Divine Majesty.

Your Majesty's most humble,

And entirely obedient servant and subject.

1 Resuscitatio, Supplement, p. 93.

6.

While these private cares were occupying Bacon at home, the great expedition had set forth;-not however on this occasion with happy winds, nor in token of happy adventures. Of the last adventure of the kind, Bacon had been "infinitely glad-now that it was past." No such consolation was reserved for him here. If he thought, as I suppose he did, that Essex was not the man for such enterprises, and that his fortunes would one day be shipwrecked in them, everything that happened in the course of this new voyage must have tended to confirm him in his judgment.

The frustration of the original design was indeed due simply to weather, and could not have been helped. The fleet, dispersed and disabled by a storm, and driven back to Plymouth to refit, was found to be too much reduced in strength for an attempt upon the Armada collected at Ferrol. But it was thought that they were still strong enough to intercept the Indian treasure on its homeward voyage; and upon an attentive study of the confused and unsatisfactory narrative, drawn by Essex and signed by all the commanders, which passes for the official report, it is difficult not to think that the attempt failed merely for want of ordinary judgment in the conduct of it. year, after the successful attack on Cadiz, Essex had proposed to sail to Terceira and capture the Indian fleet, but was overruled by his colleagues; and when it was found that, within a day or two after his proposition had been rejected, the fleet in question sailed quietly into the Tagus, everybody said it was a prize lost by ill counsel-it must have been taken if his advice had been followed. On this occasion he had no council to hamper his movements-no weather to baffle them. He sailed to the Azores, where the homeward fleet was sure to touch, for the special purpose of intercepting it—an enterprise certainly not made more difficult by the absence of the Adelantado, whom he expected to find there before him. It arrived at the expected season in the expected place; was met with by some ships of his own squadron, who fired guns and carried lights all night to give notice of it. Yet not a ship was taken or damaged, except three or four stragglers that had got separated from the main body.

He said afterwards--and no doubt thought-that it was only by a very unfortunate accident that he was prevented from taking them all-the accident of a false intelligence, which made him stand one night a contrary way. But looking at his own story told at the time, it would rather seem that he was in fact indebted to the concurrence of three separate accidents—which, if any good had come of them, must

1 Essex's Apology.

have been considered uncommonly fortunate-for the chance of taking one. The "contrary way" which he stood that night was the way which he was going; the "false intelligence" did not make him alter his course, only prevented him from altering it. Why he was going that way, is a question which modern historians and biographers do not seem to have asked themselves; and which the companions of his voyage, though they must have asked it with wonder, were evidently unable to answer. And as this is the first action of which he had the sole direction, it is worth while to examine it a little more closely; for in order to understand Bacon's relations with Essex, it is indispensable to understand Essex himself.

As soon as he arrived at the Azores he ascertained that the Adelantado was not there, and that Terceira, which was the Spanish stronghold in those islands, was too strong to be attempted with the force he had. The one considerable service which remained for him therefore, was to intercept the fleet of treasure which was expected from the Indies, but was detained as yet by contrary winds. His first proceeding was obvious and natural; he passed through the group of islands to Flores, the westernmost of them, took in water and stores, and waited some ten days; when he was joined by Ralegh with thirty other ships, which had been separated by weather off the coast of Spain. At that time the wind changed. If the fleet was coming at all therefore, now was the time to look out for it. And the object being to prevent it from getting under the batteries of Terceira, the only place in the islands where it could not be attacked, it would seem to have been above all things desirable to keep the body of the fleet in a position to command that passage. Yet it was precisely at this juncture, and with the wind N.N.W., that Essex ordered his whole force to St. Michael's, of all places-an island lying both southward and eastward of Terceira: his reason—the only reason he gives-being, that "he was told by a small pinnace come from the Indies, that it was doubtful whether the Indian fleet came from thence or not: and if they did, they would change their usual course and come in some height [i.e. latitude] more to the southward, till they were passed these islands, where usually they are attended." Which information (he proceeds) "made us resolve in council to go for Fayal, and so for St. Michael; and to have some nimble ships to lie off and on at sea both to the southward and the northward."

If the movement had been only to Fayal, which was the most central position on the western side of the group, and in nearly the same latitude with Terceira, it would have been judicious, and would in

"As yet the wind has been contrary for all Indian fleets; but now it is good." -Essex to Cecil, 16th September, 'Lives of the Earls of Essex,' i. p. 456.

fact have met with the success it deserved. But if the Spaniards themselves had had the disposition of the English fleet, they could not have done better than order it to St. Michael's. Much has been said of Essex's ill luck in so narrowly missing his prize: but his ill luck was all of his own choosing. Luck struggled hard on his side. For what happened? While he was on his way "towards St. Michael's," but still, it seems, on the north-west of Terceira,-hearing that a great ship had been seen off Graciosa (in the neighbourhood of which he must then have been) moving westward, he immediately prepared to form his fleet in three divisions,-one to go round Terceira by the north, another by the south, and a third to ply westward, and so cut her off from Fayal if she should make thither. By this disposition he made sure of intercepting her before she could gain a place of refuge; and the occasion came opportunely to warn him against taking a course in which such a disposition would become impracticable. But it seems he was so bent upon St. Michael's that nothing less than the immediate prospect of a prize could divert him from it. For being told, while he was giving the orders for this movement, that the ship had been followed and proved to be an English pinnace, he forthwith countermanded his directions and proceeded on his former course, followed (as he thought) by all the fleet; proceeded (that is) to a position from which, while the wind continued in its present quarter, it would be impossible to intercept the passage either to Terceira or Fayal: so that if the treasure-fleet were coming by the usual route, it had nothing to do but sail quietly under the batteries while his back was turned. And if all had gone as he intended, not a ship would have been taken or molested. For, as if to be sooner out of their way, he shaped his course to St. Michael's by the north side of Terceira, so as not even to cross their line of passage.1

But here accident interposed in his favour again. For it so happened that the person who was charged with the order for the movement which was so suddenly countermanded, being I suppose dull of hearing, made two extraordinary mistakes; "mishearing" the effect of the first order, and not hearing the countermand at all: the consequence of all which was that four ships stood about to the westward by themselves, while the Admiral with the rest of the fleet sailed away due east, quite unconscious of the fact. These four ships being thus by mistake sent in the direction in which the treasure-fleet was most likely to be met, did that very night (and no wonder) fall in with a fleet of twenty-five sail, among which were some sixteen richly laden carracks. But accident could do no more when design was so

1 Monson, p. 36.

« AnteriorContinuar »