observed that the King of England was shortly to be crowned.
'Nay,' saith the Portugal, 'that shall never be; for his throat will be
cut by Don Ralegh and Don Cobham before he be crowned.' 'What will you
infer upon that?' asked Ralegh. 'That your treason hath wings,' replied
Coke. Hereupon Serjeant Phillips relieved Coke, and almost outdid him.
Phillips argued that the object of procuring money was to raise up
tumults in Scotland, and to take the lives of his Majesty and his issue.
For those purposes a treasonable book against the King's right to the
Crown was 'divulged.' Commencing with the unproved allegation that 'Sir
Walter Ralegh confesseth my Lord Cobham guilty of all these treasons,'
Phillips proceeded: 'The question is, whether Ralegh be guilty, as
joining with or instigating him. If Lord Cobham's accusation be true, he
is guilty. If not, he is clear. Ralegh hath no answer. Of as much wit as
the wit of man can devise, he useth his bare denial. A denial by the
defendant must not move the jury.' Nothing could be more crushing than
the calm rejoinder: 'You have not proved any one thing by direct proofs,
but all by circumstances. I appeal to God and the King on this point
whether Cobham's accusation be sufficient to condemn me.'

[Sidenote: _Cobham's New Statement._]

So weak was the case for the prosecution that to this stage, by the
admission of a reporter of the trial, the result was very doubtful.
Coke, however, with the cognizance, it may be presumed, of the Court,
had prepared a dramatic surprise. Cobham, the day before, had written or
signed a repetition of his charge. Ralegh's account of the transaction
at the trial was that Lady Kildare, Lady Ralegh's enemy, had persuaded
Cobham to accuse Ralegh, as the sole way of saving his own life. A
letter from her to him goes some length towards confirming the
allegation. She writes: 'Help yourself, if it may be. I say no more; but
draw not the weight of others' burdens.' According to another, and not
very likely, story, told by Sir Anthony Welldon in his _Court of King
James_, Cobham subsequently stated that Waad had induced him by a trick
to sign his name on a blank page, which afterwards was thus filled in.
The paper alleged a request by Ralegh to obtain for him a pension of
L1500 for intelligence. 'But,' it ambiguously proceeded, 'upon this
motion for L1500 per annum for intelligence I never dealt with Count
Arenberg.' 'Now,' added the writer, as if it were a con