torney-general, but without success. To compensate Bacon for his
failure, Essex presented him with a beautiful villa at Twickenham on the
Thames, which was worth L2,000.

TREATMENT OF ESSEX.--Essex was of a bold, eccentric, and violent temper.
It is not to the credit of Bacon that when Essex, through his rashness and
eccentricities, found himself arraigned for treason, Bacon deserted him,
and did not simply stand aloof, but was the chief agent in his
prosecution. Nor is this all: after making a vehement and effective speech
against him, as counsel for the prosecution--a speech which led to his
conviction and execution--Bacon wrote an uncalled-for and malignant paper,
entitled "A Declaration of the Treasons of Robert, Earl of Essex."

A high-minded man would have aided his friend; a cautious man would have
remained neutral; but Bacon was extravagant, fond of show, eager for
money, and in debt: he sought only to push his own fortunes, without
regard to justice or gratitude, and he saw that he had everything to gain
from his servility to the queen, and nothing from standing by his friend.
Even those who thought Essex justly punished, regarded Bacon with aversion
and contempt, and impartial history has not reversed their opinion.

HIS APPOINTMENTS.--He strove for place, and he obtained it. In 1590 he was
appointed counsel extraordinary to the queen: such was his first reward
for this conduct, and such his first lesson in the school where thrift
followed fawning. In 1593 he was brought into parliament for Middlesex,
and there he charmed all hearers by his eloquence, which has received the
special eulogy of Ben Jonson. In his parliamentary career is found a
second instance of his truckling to power: in a speech touching the rights
of the crown, he offended the queen and her ministers; and as soon as he
found they resented it, he made a servile and unqualified apology.

At this time he began to write his _Essays_, which will be referred to
hereafter, and published two treatises, one on _The Common Law_, and one
on _The Alienation Office_.

In 1603 he was, by his own seeking, among the crowd of gentlemen knighted
by James I. on his accession; and in 1604 he added fortune to his new
dignity by marrying Alice Barnham, "a handsome maiden," the daughter of a
London alderman. He had before addressed the dowager Lady Hatton, who had
refused him and bestowed her hand upon his rival, Coke.

In 1613 he attained to the long-desir