ut. The only answer to this is, that to have
declined would have incurred the Queen's displeasure: he would have
forfeited any chance of advancement; nay, closely connected as he had
been with Essex, he might have been involved in his friend's ruin. But
inferior men have marred their fortunes by standing by their friends in
not undeserved trouble, and no one knew better than Bacon what was
worthy and noble in human action. The choice lay before him. He seems
hardly to have gone through any struggle. He persuaded himself that he
could not help himself, under the constraint of his duty to the Queen,
and he did his best to get Essex condemned.

And this was not all. The death of Essex was a shock to the popularity
of Elizabeth greater than anything that had happened in her long reign.
Bacon's name also had come into men's mouths as that of a time-server
who played fast and loose with Essex and his enemies, and who, when he
had got what he could from Essex, turned to see what he could get from
those who put him to death. A justification of the whole affair was felt
to be necessary; and Bacon was fixed upon for the distinction and the
dishonour of doing it. No one could tell the story so well, and it was
felt that he would not shrink from it. Nor did he. In cold blood he sat
down to blacken Essex, using his intimate personal knowledge of the past
to strengthen his statements against a friend who was in his grave, and
for whom none could answer but Bacon himself. It is a well-compacted and
forcible account of Essex's misdoings, on which of course the colour of
deliberate and dangerous treason was placed. Much of it, no doubt, was
true; but even of the facts, and much more of the colour, there was no
check to be had, and it is certain that it was an object to the
Government to make out the worst. It is characteristic that Bacon
records that he did not lose sight of the claims of courtesy, and
studiously spoke of "my Lord of Essex" in the draft submitted for
correction to the Queen; but she was more unceremonious, and insisted
that the "rebel" should be spoken of simply as "Essex."

After a business of this kind, fines and forfeitures flowed in
abundantly, and were "usually bestowed on deserving servants or favoured
suitors by way of reward;" and Bacon came in for his share. Out of one
of the fines he received L1200. "The Queen hath done something for me,"
he writes to a friendly creditor, "though not in the proportion I had
h