tings club and inflame their mutual pique.
Obviously, apart from acts, of which there was no evidence, no
irritation by Ralegh, however envenomed, as it was not shown to have
been, of Cobham's discontent, could in him have been treason. Judged by
all sound laws of evidence, the testimony of the statement was as flimsy
as all the rest of the proofs. To attach importance to it was a
burlesque of justice. It was treated as demonstrative by a packed Bench,
a Bar hungering for place, and a faint-hearted jury, anxious above all
things to vindicate authority, and not caring to discriminate among the
prisoners on the charges against them. To the whole court it came like a
godsend. The author of the fullest report, that which is preserved in
the Harleian MSS., expresses the sentiment of Jacobean lawyers: 'This
confession gave a great satisfaction, and cleared all the former
evidence, which before stood very doubtful.'

[Sidenote: _The Prior Recantation._]

In the reporter's judgment it overwhelmed the defendant himself.
Reasonably Ralegh 'was much amazed.' He could not have anticipated
Cobham's retractation of his retractation. He perceived the new peril in
which he was plunged by the statement that he had solicited, or been
offered by Cobham, a Spanish pension, though, as he told the King in
January, 1604, so little account had he made at the time of the
conversation in which the offer was made, that he never remembered any
such thing till it was at his trial objected against him. He felt public
opinion shaken. His faith in himself was not weakened. 'By and by,' says
the reporter, 'he seemed to gather his spirits again.' Pulling out of
his pocket the recantation, the second, which Cobham had addressed to
him from the Tower, and attested by his hope of salvation and God's
mercy on his soul, he insisted upon having it too read in court.
Hereupon, says the reporter, 'was much ado, Mr. Attorney alleging that
the letter was politicly and cunningly urged from the Lord Cobham,' and
that the latest paper was 'simply the truth.' When Ralegh raised the
natural objection that a statement written by Cobham on the eve of his
own trial might be supposed to have been extorted in some sort by
compulsion, Coke appealed to Popham to interrogate the Commissioners.
Devonshire, as their mouthpiece, declared to the jury that it was 'mere
voluntary,' and had not been written under a promise of pardon. But
Cecil supported Ralegh in the demand that th