e
transaction. He said he was examined at Windsor touching the conspiracy
to surprise and coerce the King; next, about plotting for Arabella;
thirdly, about practices with the Lord Cobham. He added: 'It is true I
suspected that Lord Cobham kept intelligence with Arenberg. For long
since he held that course with him in the Low Countries, as was well
known to my Lord Treasurer and to my Lord Cecil. La Renzi being a man
also well known to me, I, so seeing him and the Lord Cobham together,
thought that was the time they both had been to Count d'Arenberg. I gave
intimation thereof. But I was willed by my Lord Cecil not to speak of
this, because the King at the first coming of Arenberg would not give
him occasion of suspicion. Wherefore I wrote to the Lord Cecil that if
la Renzi were not taken the matter would not be discovered. Yet, if he
were then apprehended, it would give matter of suspicion to the Lord
Cobham. This letter of mine being presently shown to the Lord Cobham, he
spake bitterly of me; yet, ere he came to the stairs' foot, he repented
him, and, as I hear, acknowledged that he had done me wrong.'

Ralegh's account of the matter, in a court of honour, might have been
that Cobham's understanding with Arenberg did not seem to him of much
importance. As it perplexed the Council he, not perceiving the possible
prejudice to his friend, volunteered his services in clearing it up.
When it was discovered to be deadly, or had been inflated into an
appearance of capital criminality, his letter to Cecil was employed to
represent to Cobham an act, it must be admitted, at best of not very
friendly officiousness as black treachery. His suggestion to Cecil is
in any case inconsistent with consciousness of a guilty connexion with
treason, if there were treason. Nobody of the least sagacity, much less
the 'master of wiles,' such as contemporaries accounted Ralegh, if he
had been concerned in a plot, and if his implication in it had been
known to a single person, would have been so foolish as to provoke his
one accomplice to retaliate by accusing him.

[Sidenote: _Ralegh in Confinement._]

[Sidenote: _The Message by Keymis._]

From the examination at Windsor he returned a prisoner, confined to his
own house. Some intercourse was then held between him and Cobham,
through Captain Keymis. He said he sent Keymis to explain to Cobham
that, being under restraint, he could not come himself, and to mention
what he had done with Mr. At