g him off secretly by poison. Fruitless
attempts were reiterated by weak poisons; but at last they gave him one
so sudden and violent, that the symptoms were apparent to every one
who approached him.[**] His interment was hurried on with the greatest
precipitation; and though a strong suspicion immediately prevailed in
the public, the full proof of the crime was not brought to light till
some years after.

* State Trials, vol. i. p. 223, 224, etc.

** Franklyn's Annais. p. 2, 3, etc.

The fatal catastrophe of Overbury increased or begot the suspicion
that the prince of Wales had been carried off by poison given him
by Somerset. Men considered not that the contrary inference was much
juster. If Somerset was so great a novice in this detestable art,
that, during the course of five months, a man who was his prisoner and
attended by none but his emissaries, could not be despatched but in so
bungling a manner, how could it be imagined, that a young prince, living
in his own court, surrounded by his own friends and domestics, could be
exposed to Somerset's attempts, and be taken off by so subtile a poison,
if such a one exist, as could elude the skill of the most experienced
physicians?

The ablest minister that James ever possessed, the earl of Salisbury,
was dead.[*] Suffolk, a man of slender capacity, had succeeded him
in his office; and it was now his task to supply, from an exhausted
treasury, the profusion of James and of his young favorite. The title
of baronet, invented by Salisbury, was sold; and two hundred patents of
that species of knighthood were disposed of for so many thousand pounds;
each rank of nobility had also its price affixed to it:[**] privy
seals were circulated to the amount of two hundred thousand pounds:
benevolences were exacted to the amount of fifty-two thousand
pounds:[***] and some monopolies, of no great value, were erected.
But all these expedients proved insufficient to supply the king's
necessities; even though he began to enter into some schemes for
retrenching his expenses.[****] However small the hopes of success, a
new parliament must be summoned, and this dangerous expedient--for such
it was now become--once more be put to trial.

{1614.} When the commons were assembled, they discovered an
extraordinary alarm, on account of the rumor which was spread abroad
concerning "undertakers."[v] It was reported, that several persons,
attached to the king, had entered into a confe