rhetorical, grammatical manner, and always growing out of the same numbers, employed in the same way, and counting from the same, or similar, starting-points, cannot be otherwise than a prearranged arithmetical cipher. Let those who would deny this proposition produce a single page of a connected story, eliminated, by an arithmetical rule, from any other work; in fact, let them find five words that will cohere, by accident, in due order, in any publication, where they were not first placed with intent and aforethought. I have never yet been able to find even three such. Regularity does not grow out of chaos. There can be no intellectual order without preëxisting intellectual purpose. The fruits of mind can only be found where mind is or has been. It may be thought, by some, that I speak with too much severity of Shakspere and his family; but it must be remembered that I am battling against the great high walls of public prejudice and intrenched error. "Fate," it is said, "obeys the downright striker." I trust my earnestness will not be mistaken for maliciousness. In the concluding chapters I have tried to do justice to the memory of FRANCIS BACON, and to the great minds that first announced to the world his claim to the authorship of the Plays. I feel that it is a noble privilege to thus assist in lifting the burden of injustice from the shoulders of long-suffering merit. The key here turned, for the first time, in the secret wards of the Cipher, will yet unlock a vast history, nearly as great in bulk as the Plays themselves, and tell a mighty story of one of the greatest and most momentous eras of human history, illuminated by the most gifted human being that ever dwelt upon the earth. I conclude by invoking, in behalf of my book, the kindly judgment and good-will of all men. I. D. CHAPTER I.-How I CAME TO Look for a Cipher, II. How I BECAME CERTAIN THERE WAS A CIPHER, VIII. THE QUEEN BEATS HAYWARD, IX.-CECIL SAYS SHAKSPERE DID NOT WRITE THE PLAYS, X.-SHAKSPERE INCAPABLE OF WRITING THE PLAYS, XII.-SHAKSPERE CARRIED TO PRISON, XIII. THE YOUTHFUL SHAKspere Described, ILLUSTRATIONS. FRANCIS BACON -THE TRUE SHAKESPEARE. After the portrait by Van Somer. Frontispiece. WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. Fac-simile of the celebrated Droeshout portrait in the 1623 Folio, BEN JONSON. After the portrait by Oliver, GORHAMBURY. Bacon's residence, SIR ROBERT CECIL. FAC-SIMILE OF a Page from THE AUTHOR'S COPY OF THE GREAT FOLIO, LETTER OF LORD CHANCELLOR VERULAM (Francis Bacon) to the University of Cambridge. Fac-simile, QUEEN ELIZABETH. After the portrait in the collection of the Marquis of 64 96 160 193 566 680 712 632 920 928 936 944 950 958 ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX. After the portrait in the collection of the Earl of Verulam, WILLIAM HENRY SMITH, MRS. CONSTANCE M. POTT, |