could have had for
murdering Sir Thomas Overbury, and the evidence against them is very
indistinct and incoherent; yet the countess confessed, and her husband
was found guilty. It was attempted to be shewn, that Overbury had
opposed the divorce of the Earl and Countess of Essex, and so had done
his best to prevent the union of the favourite with the lady; but
whatever opposition he had offered had been overcome; and it is
difficult to suppose the revengeful passions so gratuitously
pertinacious as to produce a deep assassination-plot from such a
cause. So far as one can judge from the extremely disjointed notices
of the evidence in the _State Trials_ and elsewhere, it was very
inconclusive. Sir Thomas certainly died of some violent internal
attack. Other persons had been forming plans to poison him, and
apparently were successful. The connection of these persons with the
earl and countess was, however, faint. They were in communication with
Overbury, and it is true some mysterious expressions were used by
them--such as the lady saying to some one, that her lord had written
to her how 'he wondered things were not yet despatched,' and such-like
expressions. Then there was a story about the conveyance from the
countess of 'a white powder,' intended as a medicine for Sir Thomas,
and subsequently of some tarts. As to the latter, there was a letter
from the countess to the lieutenant of the Tower, saying: 'I was bid
to bid you say, that these tarts came not from me;' and again, 'I was
bid to tell you, that you must take heed of the tarts, because there
be letters in them, and therefore neither give your wife nor children
of them, but of the wine you may, for there are no letters in it.'
Through Somerset's influence, Sir W. Wade had been superseded as
lieutenant of the Tower, and Sir Jervis Elwes appointed. It was said,
that this was done for the purpose of having better opportunity for
committing the murder. Elwes in his examination, however, hinted at
the more commonplace crime of bribery as the cause of his elevation.
'He saith Sir T. Monson told him that Wade was to be removed, and if
he succeeded Sir W. Wade, he must bleed--that is, give L.2000.' To
bleed is supposed, when so employed, to be a cant term of modern
origin. It is singular how many of these terms, supposed to be quite
ephemeral, are met with in old documents. 'Bilking a coachman' occurs
in a trial of the reign of Charles II.--that of Coal for the murder of
D