Infanta's title comparatively was as good in succession as any others.

Here Sir Robert Cecil stepped forth into the Court (having kept himself private till then), and humbly prayed the Lord High Steward, upon his knee, to give him leave to answer so false and foul a report.

My Lord High Steward and divers of the Peers made semblance of giving light credit to the objection made by the Earl of Essex.

Sir R. Cecil. My Lord of Essex, the difference between you and me is great. For wit I give you the pre-eminence, you have it abundantly; for nobility also I give you place,-I am not noble, yet a gentleman; I am no swordsman,-there also you have the odds; but I have innocence, conscience, truth and honesty, to defend me against the scandal and sting of slanderous tongues, and in this Court I stand as an upright man, and your Lordship as a delinquent. I protest, before God, I have loved your person and justified your virtues; and I appeal to God and the Queen, that I told her Majesty your afflictions would make you a fit servant for her, attending but a fit time to move her Majesty to call you to the Court again. And had not I seen your ambitious affections inclined to usurpation, I would have gone on my knees to her Majesty to have done you good; but you have a wolf's heart in a sheep's garment, in appearance humble and religious, but in disposition ambitious and aspiring. God be thanked, we now know you; for indeed your religion appears by Blunt, Davis, and Tresham, your chief counsellors, and by your promising liberty of conscience hereafter. Ah! my Lord, were it but your own case, the loss had been the less, but you have drawn a number of noble persons and gentlemen of birth and quality into your net of rebellion, and their bloods will cry vengeance against you. For my part, I vow to God, I wish my soul had been in heaven and my body at rest that this had not been.

Essex. Ah! Mr. Secretary, I thank God for my humiliation, that you, in the ruff of all your bravery, have come hither to make your oration against me this day. Cecil. My Lord, I humbly thank God that you did not take me for a fit companion for you and your humour;

for if you had, you would have drawn me to betray my Sovereign as you have done others. But I challenge you to name the Councillor to whom I should speak these words; name him if you dare; if you do not name him, it must be believed to be a fiction.

Essex. Nay, my Lord, it is no fiction, for here stands an honourable person, the Earl of Southampton, that knows I speak no fables, for he heard it as well as I.

Cecil. If it be so then, my Lord of Southampton, I crave by all the love and friendship that hath been between us from our tender years, by the honour of your name and house, and by your Christian profession, that you name that Councillor to whom I should speak these words.

Southampton. I refer myself to the consideration of this honourable Court and yourself, Mr. Secretary, whether it be fit for me in the case in which I now stand to name him. And if you say, upon your honour, it be fit, I will name him.

Cecil. I protest before God in Heaven you shall do your Prince and country good service to name him, for I were a very unworthy man to hold the place I do in the State if I were to be touched in that sort.

Southampton. Mr. Secretary, if you will needs have me name the Councillor, it was told my Lord of Essex and myself, that you should speak such words to Mr. Comptroller, Sir William Knollys.

"For

Then Sir Robert Cecil, on his knee to the Lord Steward, desired that a gentleman of the Privy Chamber (or some other that might have access to the Queen) might be sent, humbly to intreat her Highness to command Mr. Comptroller to come before his Grace. I vow," said he, "before the God of Heaven, if it will not please her Majesty to send him, whereby I may clear myself of this open scandal, I will rather die at her feet than live to do her any more service in that honourable place wherein her Majesty employs me."

Hereupon the Lord High Steward, calling upon Mr. Knevet, a gentleman of her Majesty's Privy Chamber, said unto him," Mr. Knevet, go unto her Majesty and let her understand Mr. Secretary's demand."

Cecil. Mr. Knevet, I conjure you, as you are a gentle

man and do tender your reputation, that you do not acquaint Mr. Comptroller with the cause why you come for him; and that you add this further from me to her Majesty, that if either for care of my credit or love to Mr. Comptroller, or for any other respect, she shall deny to send him, I do here vow, upon my salvation, that I will never again serve her in place of Council while I live. I will live and die her true subject and servant, but will never more serve her as Councillor or Secretary.

Then the Queen's Counsel in the mean time proceeded again to the evidence objecting the Earl of Essex's hypocrisy, forasmuch as having in his house continual preaching, he yet was content to have Sir Christopher Blunt, a notorious Papist, in his house, and to promise toleration of religion.

Essex. I knew Sir Christopher Blunt to be a Papist, and have often sought his conversion; and being in speech together about matters of religion, he told me I was too passionate against those of his profession. Whereto I replied thus, "Sir Christopher, did you ever know that at such time as I had power in the State, I was willing that any man should be troubled for his conscience?" And this is the whole ground and substance of my promise for toleration of religion.

Then Mr. Knevet returned with Mr. Comptroller, to whom the Lord High Steward repeated the words unto him, and desired him to satisfy the Lords whether Mr. Secretary did ever use any such speeches in his hearing or to his knowledge?

Mr. Comptroller. I never heard him speak any words to that effect; only there was a seditious book* written by one Doleman, which very corruptly disputed the title of the succession, inferring it as lawful to the Infanta of Spain as any other; and Mr. Secretary and I being in

*The book here alluded to was written by the celebrated English Jesuit, Father Parsons, under the assumed name of Doleman. It is entitled a Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England.' It was dedicated to the Earl of Essex, -a circumstance which occasioned much jealousy on the part of the Queen. The argument contained in the book, which is ingenious and artful, is principally directed to the maintenance of the chimerical title of the Infanta of Spain.

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talk about the book, Mr. Secretary spake to this effect: Is it not a strange impudence in that Doleman to give as equal right in the succession of the Crown to the Infanta of Spain as any other? Hereupon was grounded the slanders upon Mr. Secretary, whereof he is as clear as any man here present.

Essex. The words were reported to me in another

sense.

Cecil. No, my Lord, your Lordship, out of your malice towards me, desires to make me odious, having no other true ground than the breach between us about the peace with Spain, which I laboured for the profit and quiet of my country. But with you it hath been ever a maxim to prefer war before peace, in respect of the importance it gave to your Lordship and such as followed you. Hence was set forth your Apology against the peace, and hence was conceived a general hatred against those which were affected to the peace. Councillors of State have many conferences; I confess I have said that the King of Spain is a competitor of the Crown of England, and that the King of Scots is a competitor; and my Lord of Essex I have said is a competitor, for he would depose the Queen and call a Parliament, and so be King himself. But as to my affection to advance the Spanish title to England, I am so far from it that my mind is astonished to think of it; and I pray God to consume me where I stand if I hate not the Spaniard as much as any man living. I beseech God to forgive you for this open wrong done unto me, as I do openly pronounce that I forgive you from the bottom of my heart.

Essex. And I, Mr. Secretary, do clearly and freely forgive you with all my soul; because I mean to die in charity with all men *.

Southampton. I beseech your Lordships, let me satisfy you of the causes that made me adventure so far as I did; I was wholly ignorant of the law, and therefore might easily transgress the bounds thereof. The first and only motive that made me to stir with my Lord was my entire love towards him, tied by the bonds of alliance and his manifold deserts towards me, in regard whereof

*The Reporter here remarks, "divers other speeches passed between them which I remember not.'

I was content to endure with him to the utmost hazard; for I knew his case very desperate for favour, and therefore I sought how to clear his passage to her Majesty. I protest before Almighty God we had no other end but to prostrate ourselves at her Majesty's feet; and no mention was ever made of shedding one drop of blood. And if this my affection have transported me beyond the limits of the law, and that her Highness is so greatly incensed therewith, I do in all humility crave her gracious pardon and mercy, whereof I do not despair. I hope her Majesty, being God's lieutenant here upon earth, will imitate him in looking to the heart, and not condemn me for that wherein only through ignorance of her laws I have offended.

Then it was proceeded again to the Evidence, and it was demanded by Mr. Attorney, whether to offer by force to remove any of her Majesty's Privy Council, were treason or not? The Judges answered, "It is treason." Also for a subject to make his passage to the presence of the Prince by force upon her Court or Council, whether it were treason likewise or not? And it was likewise by them adjudged treason.

Mr. Attorney. It is a plain case that force was used, for some of her Majesty's subjects were slain. Also the attempt on the Court was concluded on at Drury-house. Southampton. That resolution was not testified by Sir Charles Danvers.

Attorney-General. No, but Sir John Davis witnesseth the same..

Then Sir John Levison, who had the charge of Ludgate, was called and sworn.

He said he was at Ludgate, where there was a chain 'drawn across when the Earl of Essex came from the City with his company; that he had the command of a company of pikemen and musketeers for the Queen; 'that he refused the Earl a passage; upon which the 'Earl drew his sword and ordered Sir Christopher Blunt to fight his way through; that Blunt obeyed with great resolution, falling briskly upon Waite, whom he killed; 'that Blunt was taken prisoner, wounded; and one Tracy, and several citizens, killed.'

Essex. I beseech your Lordship to give me leave,