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he was charged, and reconcile himself to his enemies, and especially to the Secretary, whom he desired to forgive him for wronging him at the bar. After Mr. Ashton had produced this change in his disposition, two other clergymen, Dr. Montford and Dr. Barlow, were sent to him by the Council, who had heard of his refusal to confess to the Dean of Norwich, but had not been informed of the result of Mr. Ashton's visit. Dr. Barlow afterwards declared that he and Dr. Montford, mortified at the discomfiture of the Dean, had agreed before they went to him, that they would "beat him down, and wound his heart with the dreadful judgments of God *" On their arrival, however, the Churchmen found their strenuous measures unnecessary, as Mr. Ashton's persuasions had already rendered him, as they stated, more ready to reveal than it became them to inquire." The next day, February 21st, the Queen sent the four Lords of the Council to him, according to his request; he then, according to a report signed by them, with great penitence confessed his sorrow for his obstinate denials at his Trial, desiring that he might set down in writing his whole project of coming to the Court in the manner in which he did. He then wrote down a formal confession, concurring in all substantial particulars with the facts proved at the trial, naming several confederates, and especially Cuffe, who, he said, had been his chief instigator. He further asked forgiveness of the Lord Keeper, and those whom he had imprisoned in his house, expressing his concern that they had been put in fear of their lives by his followers. He then most passionately desired, in Christian charity, forgiveness at the hands of those whom he had particularly called his enemies; protesting that when he had taken the resolution of going to Court with force, he did not see Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 480.

what better pretext he could have, than a particular quarrel to those whom he had at the bar named his greatest adversaries. And being urged still to say, what he knew or could reveal, especially concerning his charge against the Secretary, he protested that "in his own conscience he acquitted him from any such matter, and was ashamed to have spoken it, having no better ground for the charge. He professed also to bear no malice to the Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Raleigh, whom he had named his enemies, and by whom he knew no other than that they were true servants to the Queen and State" *.

Having thus procured the confession of the Earl, and thereby provided plentiful materials for Proclamations, Sermons †, and Declarations, by which the public mind might be directed, there remained no obstacle to the execution of the sentence, but the disinclination of the Queen. That Elizabeth should have been painfully affected at the execution of Essex, is natural and probable; but it does not appear that she manifested the same distress and horror at consenting to the death of her former favourite, as she had done in the case of the Duke of Norfolk. Camden indeed asserts, that she wavered in her resolution, and that "at one time she sent her orders by Sir Edward Carey to countermand the execution of the Earl, though she soon afterwards sent a fresh order for his death." There is, however, no other

* Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 477.

That the pulpits were at this time actively employed in the service of the Government, for the purpose of directing the public mind against Essex, is manifest from a curious paper in the StatePaper Office, entitled 'Directions to the Preachers. This paper contains an inflamed and exaggerated account of the insurrection in the City, and a declamatory invective against the Earl of Essex generally, and particularly with respect to his conduct in Ireland. The Earl is spoken of throughout this paper as "that hateful Earl, that wicked Earl, that arch-traitor," &c.

evidence of the Queen's vacillation than Camden's statement, which was probably founded on mere rumour: on the contrary, it seems likely from several circumstances that her personal regard for him had been extinguished for some time*; and the Letters and Documents in the State-Paper Office tend to show, that as soon as the confession was obtained, it was determined that the Earl should suffer, and that no serious objection was apprehended on the part of the Queen.

It should be here remarked, in justice to the character of this extraordinary nobleman, that in estimating the degree of credit to be given to the narrative of his conversation and conduct after his condemnation, we must bear in mind that we merely know so much on the subject as the Queen and her Council thought proper to make public. No friend of Essex, not even his Countess, or his mother, nor any other person who might have given an indifferent account of his behaviour, was admitted to him. On the other hand, the Divines were the mere tools of the Government; the four Lords of the Council, who came to him the day after the preachers had reported his humiliation, would of course tell their own story. The written Confession "on four sheets of paper in his own hand,” mentioned in Cecil's Letter to Winwood †, was never made public; and as the execution took place within the walls of the Tower, the auditors of what he said on the scaffold consisted of such and so many persons only as the Lieutenant had instructions to admit within the gates; and that it was to all intents and purposes an audience packed and pre

The story of the ring, which is related by most biographers of Elizabeth, is of too doubtful authenticity to be worth relating here. It may be found at full length in the Biographia Britannica, Article Devereux.

+ Winwood's Memorials, vol. i, pp. 300, 301,

pared by the Privy Council, will be evident from the Letters which we shall presently lay before the reader. The Earl of Essex is said to have made an earnest petition to the Queen that he might die privately in the Tower; that he should petition for a private execution, is neither unnatural nor improbable, though it is inconsistent with his declaration on the trial, "that his death should testify to all men, whether he or some of the witnesses brought against him spoke the truth;" but the fact is rendered suspicious by the eagerness of the Council to declare it. Thus Cecil, in his Letter to Winwood, above cited, having already fully directed the Ambassador respecting the report he was to make of the Earl's conduct to the French King, adds in a postscript, "You must understand that he was an exceeding earnest suitor to be executed privately in the Tower." It is expressly mentioned in all the despatches, and forms a distinct article in the paper, as signed by the three clergymen, and published by Bacon in his 'Declaration,' a copy of which was forwarded to foreign Courts, and made public by every possible exertion *. The King of France, however, appears not to have believed the story, and to

*We give this paper as taken from the original document, signed by the three clergymen, and still to be seen at the StatePaper Office. It appears to have come into that Office with some papers of Sir Edward Coke, for there are indorsed upon it in his well-known hand the words, " O Tempora!"

25th February, 1600.

1. The late Earl thanked God most heartily that he had given him a deep insight into his sin, being sorry he had so stood upon his justification at his arraignment, for he was since that become another man.

2. He thanked God that his course was prevented; for if his project had taken effect, "God knows," said he, "what harm it had wrought in the realm!"

3. He humbly thanked her Majesty, that he should die in so private manner, lest the acclamation of the people might have been a temptation unto him; to which he added that popularity

have had some information on the subject previously; for on Winwood's relating to him the circumstances of the confession of the Earl, and stating his wish for a private execution, the King interrupted him, saying, "Nay, rather the clean contrary, for he desired nothing more than to die in public *.'

The execution of a criminal, especially of one of rank and distinction, was in former times a spectacle which the Government employed for the purpose of directing the public mind in the course of their own views and intentions, and also of justifying their proceedings in the estimation of foreign states. In the case of Essex, his great popularity and the strong personal friendship entertained towards him by James of Scotland and the King of France, rendered it peculiarly important that his execution should produce a general impression of the justice of his sentence, and of his own acquiescence in its propriety. The contrivance and machinery by which the execution in this case was prepared, so as to produce the desired effect, will appear from the following Letters taken from the original drafts at the State-Paper Office. Both Letters were written the day before the execution; the first, which is addressed to Lord Thomas Howard, the

and trust in man was vain, the experience whereof himself had felt.

4. He acknowledged with thankfulness to God that he was justly thus spewed out of the realm.

5. He publicly in his prayer and protestation, as also privately, aggravated the detestation of his sin; and especially in the hearing of those that were present at the execution, he exaggerated it with four epithets, desiring God to forgive him, his great, his bloody, his crying, and his infectious sin; which word infectious he privately had explained to us that it was a leprosy which had infected far and near. THOMAS MONTford.

* Winwood's Memorials, vol. i.

WILLIAM Barlow.

ABDIE ASHTON,

p.

309.