s thereupon interrupted by the
earl, who proceeded to defend himself, by declaring that in one of the
letters drawn up by Bacon, and purporting to be from the earl to Anthony
Bacon, the existence of these rumours, and the dangers to be apprehended
from them, had been admitted; and he continued, "If these reasons were then
just and true, not counterfeit, how can it be that now my pretences are
false and injurious?" To this Bacon replied, that "the letters, if they
were there, would not blush to be seen for anything contained in them, and
that he had spent more time in vain in studying how to make the earl a good
servant to the queen than he had done in any thing else." It seems to be
forgotten in the general accounts of this matter, not only that Bacon's
letters bear out what he said, but that the earl's excuses were false. A
second time Bacon was compelled to interfere in the course of the trial,
and to recall to the minds of those present the real question at issue. He
animadverted strongly upon the puerile nature of the defence, and in answer
to a remark by Essex, that if he had wished to stir up a rebellion he would
have had a larger company with him, pointed out that his dependence was
upon the people of London, and compared his attempt to that of the duke of
Guise at Paris. To this the earl made little or no reply. Bacon's use of
this illustration and of the former one of Peisistratus, has been much
commented on, and in general it seems to have been thought that had it not
been for his speeches Essex might have escaped, or, at all events, have
been afterwards pardoned. But this view of the matter depends on the
supposition that Essex was guilty only of a rash outbreak.[5] That this was
not the case was well known to the queen and her council. Unfortunately,
prudential motives hindered the publication of the whole evidence; the
people, consequently, were still ignorant of the magnitude of the crime,
and, till recently, biographers of Bacon have been in a like ignorance.[6]
The earl himself, before execution, confessed his guilt and the thorough
justice of his sentence, while, with singular lack of magnanimity, he
incriminated several against whom accusations had not been brought, among
others his sister Lady Rich. After his execution it was thought necessary
that some account of the facts should be drawn up and circulated, in order
to remove the prejudice against the queen's action in the matter. This was
entrusted to