be the
most notorious traitor that ever came to the bar. You, indeed, are upon
the Main; but you followed them of the Bye in imitation.' Ralegh asked
for proof. 'Nay,' cried Coke, 'I will prove all. Thou art a monster;
thou hast an English face, but a Spanish heart. Your intent was to set
up the Lady Arabella, and to depose our rightful King, the lineal
descendant of Edward IV.' Coke, it will be seen, did not choose to trace
the Stuarts to Henry VII. He treated the Tudors as interlopers. 'You
pretend,' he continued, that the money expected from Arenberg was to
'forward the Peace with Spain. Your jargon was peace, which meant
Spanish invasion and Scottish subversion.' Cobham, argued Coke, never
was a politician, nor a swordsman. Ralegh was both. Ralegh and Cobham
both were discontented, and Cobham's discontent grew by Ralegh. Such was
Ralegh's machiavellian policy that he would never confer with but one
at once. He would talk with none but Cobham; 'because, saith he, one
witness can never condemn me.'

[Sidenote: _Master Attorney's zeal._]

Next, Coke turned to the communications between Ralegh and Cobham in the
Tower. He exclaimed to the jury: 'And now you shall see the most
horrible practices that ever came out of the bottomless pit of the
lowest hell.' In reply to a protest by Ralegh as to his liability for
some underhand practices of Cobham, as Warden of the Cinque Ports, Coke
foamed out: 'All he did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou
thee, thou traitor! I will prove thee the rankest traitor in all
England.' 'No, Master Attorney,' was the answer: 'I am no traitor.
Whether I live or die, I shall stand as true a subject as ever the King
hath. You may call me a traitor at your pleasure; yet it becomes not a
man of quality or virtue to do so. But I take comfort in it; it is all
that you can do; for I do not yet hear that you charge me with any
treason.' The Lord Chief Justice interposed: 'Sir Walter Ralegh, Master
Attorney speaks out of the zeal of his duty for the service of the King,
and you for your life; be patient on both sides.' It is hard to see how
Ralegh had shown impatience. Some impatience he manifested on the
reading of Cobham's declaration of July 20. 'Cobham,' said he, 'is not
such a babe as you make him. He hath dispositions of such violence which
his best friends could never temper.' He was not of a nature to be
easily persuaded by Ralegh. Assuredly Ralegh was not likely to 'conspire
with a