The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

316 CHARGE AGAINST FRANCES, COUNTESS OF SOMERSET.
And certainly confession, as it is the strongest especially such as are swo]n in fortunes from small
foundation of justice, so it is a kind of corner- beginnings, that the king is as well able to level
stone, whereupon justice and mercy may meet. mountains, as to fill valleys, if such be their
The proofs, which I shall read in the end for desert.
the ground of your verdict and sentence, will be But to come to the present case; the great
very short; and as much as may serve to satisfy frame of justice, my lords, in this present action,
your honours and consciences for the conviction hath a vault, and it hath a stage: a vault, whereof this lady, without wasting of time in a case in these works of darkness were contrived; and a
clear and confessed; or ripping up guiltiness stage with steps, by which they were brought to
against one, that hath prostrated herself by con- light. And, therefore, I will bring this work
fession; or preventing or deflowering too much of justice to the period of this day; and then go
of the evidence. And, therefore, the occasion on with this day's work.
itself doth admonish me to spend this day rather Sir Thomas Overbury was murdered by poison
in declaration than in evidence, giving God and on the 15th of September, 1613, 11 Reg. This
the king the honour, and your lordships and the foul and cruel murder did, for a time, cry secretly
hearers the contentment, to set before you the in the ears of God; but God gave no answer to it,
proceeding of this excellent work of the king's otherwise than by that voice, which sometimes he
justice, from the beginning to the end; and so useth, which is "veO populi," the speech of the
to conclude with the reading the confessions and people. For there went then a murmur, that
proofs. Overbury was poisoned: and yet this same subMy lords, this is now the second timed within miss and soft voice of God, the speech of the
the space of thirteen years reign of our happy vulgar people, was not without a counter-tenor, or
sovereign, that this high tribunal-seat of justice, counter-blast of the devil, who is the common
ordained for the trial by peers, hath been opened author both of murder and slander: for it was
and erected; and that, with a rare event, supplied given out, that Overbury was dead of a foul disease;
and exercised by one and the same person, which and his body, which they had made a ", corpus
is a great honour to you, my lord steward. Judaicum" with their poisons, so as it had no
In all this mean time the king hath reigned in whole part, must be said to be leprosed with vice,
his white robe, not sprinkled with any drop of and so his name poisoned as well as his body.
blood of any of his nobles of this kingdom. For as to dissoluteness, I never heard the gentleNay, such have been the depths of his mercy, as man noted with it: his faults were insolency
o ven those noblemen's bloods, against whom the and turbulency, and the like of that kind: the
proceeding was at Winchester, Cobham and other part of the soul, not the voluptuous.
Grey, were attainted and corrupted, but not spilt Mean time, there was some industry used, of
or taken away; but that they remained rather which I will not now speak, to lull asleep those
spectacles of justice in their continual imprison- that were the revengers of blood; the father and
ment, than monuments of justice in the memory the brother of the murdered. And in these terms
of their suffering. things stood by the space almost of two years,
It is true, that the objects of his justice then during which time God so blinded the two great
and now were very differing. For then, it was procurers, and dazzled them with their own greatthe revenge of an offence against his own person ness, and did bind and nail fast the actors and
and crown, and upon persons that were malcon- instruments with security upon their protection,
tents, and contraries to the state and government. as neither the one looked about them, nor the
But now, it is the revenge of the blood and death other stirred or fled, nor were conveyed away:
of a particular subject, and the cry of a prisoner. but remaineth here still, as under a privy arrest
It is upon persons that were highly in his favour; of God's judgments; insomuch as Franklin,
whereby his majesty, to his great honour, hath that should have been sent over to the Palsgrave
showed to the world, as if it were written in a sun- with good store of money, was, by God's pro
beam, that he is truly the lieutenant of Hirn with vidence, and the accident of a marriage of his,
whom there is no respect of persons; that his affec- diverted and stayed.
tions royal are above his affections private; that But about the beginning of the progress last
his favours and nearness about him are not like summer, God's judgments began to come out of
popish sanctuaries to privilege malefactors: and their depths: and as the revealing of murders is
that his being the best master of the world doth commonly such, as a man may say, " a Domino
not let him from being the best king of the world. hoc factum est;" it is God's work, and it is marHis people, on the other side, may say to them- vellous in our eyes: so in this particular, it is most
selves, "I will lie down in peace; for God and admirable; for it came forth by a compliment and
the king and the law protect me against great and matter of courtesy.
small." It may be a discipline also to great men, My Lord of Shrewsbury*, that is now with
v The first time was on the trials of the Lords Cobiiain and * Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury, Knight of the Garter, who
Grev in November, 1603. (died May 8, 161G.