leigh say true, then he is free; so which of them says true is the whole question. Sir W. Raleigh hath no proof for his acquittal, though he hath as much wit as man can have; but he uses only his bare denial. But the denial of a criminal is not sufficient to clear him, neither is the evidence on oath of a defendant in his own cause allowed to clear him in any Court of law or equity, much less, therefore, in matters of treason.

Sir Walter Raleigh. I will begin where Mr. Serjeant left off, namely, as to Cobham's accusation. Truth ought to be consistent: for that which was once truth must always continue to be so; but the Lord Cobham's accusation being recanted and disavowed, is no proof nor truth; and besides Lord Cobham's charge, there is no one thing proved against me by direct evidence, but only by inference, and that false. Why, then, would you have me to bring testimony? Where there is nothing to charge me, what should I discharge myself of? I appeal to God and the King in this point, whether Cobham's accusation be sufficient to condemn me.

Now the business seemed to be at an end. Then said Sir Walter Raleigh, "Mr. Attorney, have you done?" Attorney-General. Yes, if you have no more to say. Sir Walter Raleigh. If you have done, then I have somewhat more to say.

Attorney-General. Nay, I will have the last word for the King.

Sir Walter Raleigh. Nay, I will have the last word for my life.

Attorney-General. Go to, I will lay thee upon thy back for the confidentest traitor that ever came to the bar. Lord Cecil. Be not so impatient, good Mr. Attorney, give him leave to speak.

Attorney-General. I am the King's sworn servant, and must speak; if I may not be patiently heard, you discourage the King's Counsel, and encourage traitors.

Here Mr. Attorney sat down in a chafe, and would speak no more, until the Commissioners urged and intreated him. After much ado, he went on, and made a long repetition of all the evidence, for the direction of the jury; and at the repeating of some things, Sir Walter Raleigh interrupted him, and said he did him wrong.

Attorney-General. Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived *.

Sir Walter Raleigh. You speak indiscreetly, uncivilly, and barbarously.

Attorney-General. Thou art an odious fellow; thy name is hateful to all the realm of England for thy pride.

Sir Walter Raleigh. It will go near to prove a measuring cast between you and me, Mr. Attorney.

Attorney-General. Well, I will now lay you open for the greatest traitor that ever was. This, my Lords, is he that hath set forth so gloriously his services against the Spaniard, and hath ever so detested him! This is he that hath written a book against the peace! I will make it appear to the world that there never lived a viler viper on the face of the earth than thou. I will show you wholly Spanish, and that you offered yourself a pensioner to Spain for intelligence. Then let all that have heard you this day judge what you are, and what a traitor's heart you bear, whatever you pretend. See, my Lords, what it hath pleased God to work in the heart of my Lord Cobham, even since his coming hither to Winchester; he could not sleep quietly till he had revealed the truth to the Lords, and therefore voluntarily wrote the whole matter to them, with his own hand, but yesterday. And to discover you, Raleigh, and all your Machiavelian tricks, hear what the Lord Cobham hath written, under his own hand, which I will read with a loud voice, though I be not able to speak this se'nnight after.

He then read Lord Cobham's Letter to the Lords, as follows, commenting upon it as he went along:

* Fourteen years afterwards, on the eve of his discharge from his office of Lord Chief Justice, Sir Edward Coke was painfully reminded by Bacon, of the consequences of his unfeeling conduct, when Attorney-General. "In your pleadings," says he, "you were wont to insult over misery, and to inveigh bitterly at the persons; which bred you many enemies, whose poison yet swelleth, and the effects now appear."-Bacon's Works, vol. iii. p. 301.

With respect to this letter of Cobham's, it will be proper to notice here the following anecdote related in Weldon's Court and Character of James I. On occasion of an illness of Queen Anne, who always interested herself greatly for Raleigh, some remedy was

'I have thought it fit, in duty to my Sovereign, and in discharge of my conscience, to set this down for your Lordships, wherein I protest, upon my soul, to write nothing but what is true; for I am not ignorant of my present condition, and now to dissemble with God is no time. Sir W. Raleigh, four nights before my coming 'from the Tower, caused a letter, inclosed in an apple, 'to be thrown in at my chamber window, desiring me to 'set down under my hand, and send to him an acknowledgment that I had wronged him, and renouncing 'what I had formerly accused him of. His first letter I made no answer to; the next day he wrote me another, " praying me, for God's sake, if I pitied him, his wife, and children, that I would answer him in the points he set down; informing me that the Judges had met at Mr. Attorney's house, and putting me in hope that the proceedings against me would be stayed." Upon this, I wrote him a letter, as he desired. I since have thought how he went about only to clear ⚫ himself by betraying me. Whereupon I have resolved 'to set down the truth, and, under my hand, to retract what he cunningly got from me; craving humble pardon ⚫ of his Majesty and your Lordships for my double dealing. suggested by him, which proved effectual, and led to her recovery. Upon her expressing her gratitude for this service, Raleigh begged her to use her influence with the King that certain Lords "might be sent to examine Cobham, whether he had accused him at any time of treason, under his hand." The King, at the Queen's request, accordingly despatched six Lords to the Tower to examine Cobham, who protested" that he never had, nor could he;" "but," said he," that villain Wade did often solicit me, and not prevailing that way, got me, by a trick, to write my name upon a piece of white paper, which Ỉ, thinking nothing, did. So that if any charge came from under my hand, it was forged by that villain Wade, by writing something above my hand, without my consent or knowledge." The story seems very improbable, and, even if true, it merely adds another instance of Cobham's falsehood; for besides the letter here alluded to, there is an Examination of him, taken before several Lords of the Council, on the 22d Nov. 1603, (the day of his trial,) in which he fully and circumstantially repeats his former accusation of Raleigh, adding several circumstances which he had not mentioned before. This Examination is signed by Cobham.

VOL. I.

2Q

At the first coming of Count Aremberg, Raleigh persuaded me to deal with him, to get him a pension of 15007. from Spain, for intelligence, and he would always * tell and advertise what was intended by England against Spain, the Low Countries, or the Indies. And, coming from Greenwich one night, he told me what was agreed upon betwixt the King and the Low Countrymen, that 'I should impart it to Count Aremberg. But for this 'motion for 1500l. for intelligence, I never dealt with the 'Count Aremberg. Now, as by this may appear to your Lordships, he hath been the original cause of my ruin; for but by his instigation, I had never dealt with Count Aremberg. So also hath he been the only cause ' of my discontentment,―I never coming from the Court 'but still he filled and possessed me with new causes of 'discontentments. To conclude; in his last letter, he ⚫ advised me that I should not be overtaken by confessing to any preacher, as the Earl of Essex did, for the King 'would better allow my constant denial, than my accusing any other person, which would but add matter to my 'former offence.'

Attorney-General. O damnable Atheist! He counsels him not to confess to preachers, as the Earl of Essex did. That noble Earl died indeed for his offence; but he died the child of God, and God honoured him at his death. Thou wast by when he died. Et lupus et turpes instant morientibus ursæ*.

This Confession of the Lord Cobham seemed to give great satisfaction, and cleared all the former evidence, which stood very doubtful.

Attorney-General. Now, Raleigh, if thou hast the grace, humble thyself to the King, and confess thy trea

sons.

At this Confession of the Lord Cobham, Sir W. Raleigh was much amazed; yet by-and-bye seemed to gather his spirits again, and said, "I pray you hear me a word: you have heard a strange tale of a strange man; you shall see how many souls this Cobham hath, and the King shall judge by our deaths which of us is the perfidious man. Before my Lord Cobham's coming from the Tower, I was advised by some of my friends to get a * "Wolves and base bears press upon dying men.'

confession from him; therefore I wrote to him thus: You or I must go to trial; if I first, then your accusation is the only evidence against me.' Therefore it was

not ill of me to beg of him to say the truth. But his first letter was not to my contenting. I wrote a second, and then he wrote me a very good letter. It is true I got a poor fellow in the Tower to cast up an apple with the letter in it, at Lord Cobham's window*; which I am loath to mention, lest Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower might be blamed; though I protest Sir George Harvey is not to blame for what passed. No keeper in the world could so provide but it might happen. But I sent him his letter again, because I had heard it was likely now he should be first tried; but the Lord Cobham sent me the letter a second time, saying it was not unfit I should have such a letter; and here you may see it, and I pray you read it." Popham, C. J. But what say you to the pension of 1500l. a-year?

Sir Walter Raleigh. I say that Cobham is a poor, silly, base, dishonourable soul!

Attorney-General. Is he base? I return it into thy throat on his behalf; but for thee, he had been a good subject.

Popham, C. J. I perceive you are not so clear a man as you have protested all this while, for you should have discovered this matter to the King.

Sir Walter Raleigh. Hear now, I pray you, what Cobham hath written to me.

*This transaction seems to have been afterwards a subject of serious inquiry. In 1606, a man of the name of Edward Cotterell, who had been appointed by the Lieutenant of the Tower to wait upon Sir Walter Raleigh before his trial, was apprehended at Sherborne, and was found to have been ever since the trial in the pay of Raleigh. In his Examination before the Privy Council, he says, that "at the great entreaty of Sir W. Raleigh, he took an apple from him, to which a letter or writing was tied with a thread, and did throw the same in at the window in the Wardrobe Tower, where the Lord Cobham was lodged, about eight o'clock in the evening; and that he came again the next night about the same time, and took a letter which the Lord Cobham wrote, that was put under the door of the prison, and brought the same to Sir W. Raleigh. And this was not past four or five days before Sir Walter Raleigh went to Winchester."-State-Paper Office.