id.

Thus passed one of England's greatest heroes, indeed one of the very
makers of this England, and than his death there is no more shameful
blot upon the shameful reign of that pusillanimous James, unclean of
body and of soul, who sacrificed him to the King of Spain.

A spectator of his death, who suffered for his words--as men must ever
suffer for the regardless utterance of Truth--declared that England had
not such another head to cut off.

As for Stukeley, the acquisitiveness which had made a Judas of him was
destined, by a poetic justice, ever desired but rarely forthcoming for
knaves, soon to be his ruin. He was caught diminishing the gold coin of
the realm by the operation known to-day as "clipping," and with him was
taken his creature Manourie, who, to save himself, turned chief witness
against Stukeley. Sir Lewis was sentenced to death, but saved himself
by purchasing his pardon at the cost of every ill-gotten shilling he
possessed, and he lived thereafter as bankrupt of means as he was of
honour.

Yet before all this happened, Sir Lewis had for his part in Sir Walter
Ralegh's death come to be an object of execration throughout the land,
and to be commonly known as "Sir Judas." At Whitehall he suffered
rebuffs and insults that found a climax in the words addressed to him by
the Lord Admiral, to whom he went to give an account of his office.

"Base fellow, darest thou who art the contempt and scorn of men offer
thyself in my presence?"

For a man of honour there was but one course. Sir Judas was not a man of
honour. He carried his grievance to the King. James leered at him.

"What wouldst thou have me do? Wouldst thou have me hang him? On my
soul, if I should hang all that speak ill of thee, all the trees of the
country would not suffice, so great is the number."

VIII. HIS INSOLENCE OF BUCKINGHAM

George Villier's Courtship of Ann of Austria

He was Insolence incarnate.

Since the day when, a mere country lad, his singular good looks
had attracted the attention of King James--notoriously partial to
good-looking lads--and had earned him the office of cup-bearer to his
Majesty, the career of George Villiers is to be read in a series of
acts of violent and ever-increasing arrogance, expressing the vanity and
levity inherent in his nature. Scarcely was he established in the royal
favour than he distinguished himself by striking an offending gentleman
in the very presence of his sovereign-