a Lady as Somerset should contrive such a plot without some help." No, no," said he; "who can think otherwise? for the Lady had no money, but the money was had from the old Lady, out one day 2007, and another day 5001, for she wanted no money." He gave a glance of Sir William Mounson for the bringing of an hundred pounds for the feeding of the plot. He said, that there is one living about the town that is fit to be called and questioned about the overtures and the plot against the Earl of Essex. "I can make one discovery that should deserve my life." He said that he had some knowledge in all acts, and villanies, and knaveries in the world; but now he had recanted them, and repented himself for them. He thanked God for it. "I could never find, by any constellation or commutation, that I should be hanged; but ther 's the devil had deceived me." FINIS.* James Francklyne his own Arraignment, Confession, First, I protest unto the world that what I have set down is true, unfeigned, and from my heart. I say I was arraigned at the bar, where without sins are judges, the indictment my own offences, the witnesses my own conscience, the jury my thoughts, and my muteness does oppress the disturbance of my soul and a sorrowful repentance. The first that calls me to the bar is murder; to the which, in my heart, I did plead guilty, yet, withal, acknowledging that of myself in my heart I was not contriver of so great a mischief, but, in concealing the intents of others made known unto me, in the eyes of the Lord hold myself worthy of death. * State Paper Office; Domestic Papers, 1615, Nov. 28, No. 326. This paper is in Sir E. Coke's handwriting. But whereas the sting of slander hath been openly at the bar, in the face of the world, shot into my bosom about the death of my wife, making me the author and actor in it, I call heaven to bear record of my innocence therein, who had no cause to shorten her life, whose death, by her mean and herself, was thirty shillings a week weakening to my estate. The next that calls me to this bar is poison, against which, and the villany thereof, I do utterly detest; yet I confess that some of the drugs . . . . which were given Sir Thomas Overbury were delivered unto these women by me by their directions, at the first not knowing, yet afterwards I did conceal, and I freely confess unto all the world, that the greatness of one wicked woman, and the unfortunate acquaintance with the other, drew me to this assistance and consent. And whereas it was at the bar averred by an ungodly, wicked, and perjured fellow, that I should blasphemously and contemptuously deny and speak against God, I do humbly request all charitable Christians to have a more conscionable care and opinion of me; for that I have ever been a Protestant all my lifetime, and trust, by the merits of Christ's death and passion, to buy my inheritance in heaven, and always known to be a frequenter of sermons. And whereas the malice of some misconstruing spirits have cast a suspicion upon me for diabolical practices, as conjuring, calling of spirits, &c., I confess I had a little insight given me by means of a book which came to my hands, but for studying any such works of Satan and those abominable Godless arts, I did never, for .. to obtain such business I was none. .. So crying guilty unto God for all my sinns, here I give sentence against myself, and have no more to speak in my own defence, but sue to the King of heaven for my pardon, fully resolving myself that I shall be entertained into his grace, and care not what tortures this wretched body suffers; and in conclusion commend my soul to heaven, my body to the grave, my sinns to hell, and my last farewell to the world. This, all written with Franklyn's own hand after his [Indorsed] A duplicate of Franklyn's confession, which he desired might be printed after his death.+ Along with the dying speeches, be they real or fabricated, or partly both, of the culprits executed for the murder of Sir T. Overbury, the reader ought to take into his consideration a letter written to the Earl of Somerset by the Earl of Northampton, very shortly before his death, and under the immediate prospect of that event. It will be recollected that Northampton died within a few months after the death of Sir T. Overbury. In any point of view, the letter will be deemed curious. Its tendency may be thought, although perhaps only in a slight degree, to exonerate the Earl of Somerset from the imputation of having been leagued with the Earl of Northampton, shortly before the letter was written, in perpetrating a cruel and treacherous murder. HONOURABLE AND WORTHY LORD, yet If the plain dealing both of my physician and surgeon did not assure me of a few days I have to live, I should have deferred the putting of these poor suits into your hands, lest I might be thought still rather to value your greatness than your goodness. * The memorandum and the indorsement are in Sir E. Coke's handwriting. + State Paper Office; Domestic Papers, 1615, Nov., No. 323. But, noble Lord, let me be beholden at my last farewell to such poor toys as do rather ease my mind than pinch any man. I humbly beseech your Lordship to stay with all the power you can the conferring of the office of the Cinque Ports either upon Pembroke or upon Lisle; for as they hated me, so they will plague my people, and those whom I loved. Sir Robert Brett, at his coming to the place of Lieutenant, was content to depart with a plot of ground for the enlargement of my garden, which could have been bought of him for no money. My very conscience is pressed in this point, and therefore cannot satisfy myself till I have put my earnest suit into the hand of my dearest Lord, to take care that his Majesty admit no Warden, before he has given his word to him not to remove the poor distressed gentleman out of his Lieutenantcy. If I die before midsummer, the farms of the Irish customs are not to pay me, though it be but one day before, which were a great wound to my fortune. No man can help this inconvenience better than your Lordship, by obtaining a Privy Seal, that my executors be paid, if it come to that hard strait of a day or two. Assurance from your Lordship, that you will effect those final requests, shall send my spirit out of this transitory tabernacle with as much comfort and content as the bird flies to the mountain. Dear Lord, my spirits spend, and my strength decays, and all that remains is, with my dying hand to witness, what my living heart did vow, when it gave itself to your Lordship, as to the choice friend whom I did love for his virtues, and not court for his fortune. Farewell, noble Lord; and the last farewell in the last letter I look to write to any man. I presume confidently of your favour in these poor suits, and will be, both living and dying, your affectionate friend and servant, H. NORTHAMPTON. Tuesday, at 2. CHAPTER IV. OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARGE AGAINST THE EARL OF SOMERSET FOR POISONING SIR THOMAS OVERBURY. IN perusing the trial of the Earl of Somerset, the circumstance which has probably first struck the reader's attention, is what may be regarded as no less a literary than a legal curiosity, Sir Francis Bacon's methodical arrangement of the case for the prosecution. The proofs are distributed under four heads, the first head having four subordinate divisions, and the second being presented under "eight points of a compass;" each matter, according to the degree of its intricacy or its importance, being exhibited in a "single, double, or reflex light." The Earl is to be allowed three opportunities for cogitation" upon each piece of evidence as it is brought forward; viz. "to take aim, to ruminate, and readvise." Sir F. Bacon takes occasion to observe that he "loves order;" and accordingly we have here before us perhaps the most remarkable specimen, in ancient or modern trials, of the Genius of Order presiding over a systematic arrangement of evidence, deduced, as we learn, from upwards of three hundred examinations. The facts of the 66 |