urt was thrown into parties between the two minions: while
some endeavored to advance the rising fortunes of Villiers, others
deemed it safer to adhere to the established credit of Somerset. The
king himself, divided between inclination and decorum, increased the
doubt and ambiguity of the courtiers; and the stern jealousy of the old
favorite, who refused every advance of friendship from his rival, begat
perpetual quarrels between their several partisans. But the discovery
of Somerset's guilt in the murder of Overbury at last decided the
controversy, and exposed him to the ruin and infamy which he so well
merited.

An apothecary's apprentice, who had been employed in making up the
poisons, having retired to Flushing, began to talk very freely of the
whole secret; and the affair at last came to the ears of Trumbal, the
king's envoy in the Low Countries. By his means, Sir Ralph Winwood,
secretary of state, was informed; and he immediately carried the
intelligence to James. The king, alarmed and astonished to find such
enormous guilt in a man whom he had admitted into his bosom, sent for
Sir Edward Coke, chief justice, and earnestly recommended to him the
most rigorous and unbiased scrutiny. This injunction was executed with
great industry and severity: the whole labyrinth of guilt was carefully
unravelled: the lesser criminals, Sir Jervis Elvis, lieutenant of the
Tower, Franklin, Weston, Mrs. Turner, were first tried and condemned:
Somerset and his countess were afterwards found guilty. Northampton's
death, a little before, had saved him from a like fate.

It may not be unworthy of remark, that Coke, in the trial of Mrs.
Turner, told her that she was guilty of the seven deadly sins: she was
a whore, a bawd, a sorcerer, a witch, a Papist, a felon, and
a murderer.[*] And, what may more surprise us, Bacon, then
attorney-general, took care to observe, that poisoning was a Popish
trick.[**] Such were the bigoted prejudices which prevailed: poisoning
was not of itself sufficiently odious, if it were not represented as a
branch of Popery. Stowe tells us, that when the king came to Newcastle,
on his first entry into England, he gave liberty to all the prisoners,
except those who were confined for treason, murder, and Papistry. When
one considers these circumstances, that furious bigotry of the
Catholics which broke out in the gunpowder conspiracy, appears the less
surprising.

All the accomplices in Overbury's murder received