But justice is the work of this day; the mercyseat was in the inner part of the temple; the throne is public. But, since this lady hath, by her confession, prevented my evidence, and your verdict, and that this day's labour is eased; there resteth, in the legal proceeding, but for me to pray that her confession may be recorded, and judgment thereupon.

But, because your lordships the peers are met, and that this day and to-morrow are the days that crown all the former justice; and that in these great cases it hath been ever the manner to respect honour and satisfaction, as well as the ordinary parts and forms of justice; the occasion itself admonisheth me to give your lordships and the hearers this contentment, as to make declaration of the proceedings of this excellent work of the king's justice, from the beginning to the end. It may please your grace, my Lord High Steward of England: this is now the second time, within the space of thirteen years' reign of our happy sovereign, that this high tribunal-seat, ordained for the trial of peers, hath been opened and erected, and that with a rare event, supplied and exercised by one and the same person, which is a great honour unto you, my lord steward.

In all this mean time the king hath reigned in his white robe, not sprinkled with any one drop of the blood of any of his nobles of this kingdom. Nay, such have been the depths of his mercy, as even those noblemen's bloods, against whom the proceeding was at Winchester, Cobham and Grey, were attainted and corrupted, but not spilt or taken away; but that they remained rather spectacles of justice in their continual imprisonment, than monuments of justice in the memory of their suffering.

It is true that the objects of his justice then, and now, were very differing: for then it was the revenge of an offence against his own person and crown, and upon persons that were malcontents, and contraries to the state and government; but now it is the revenge of the blood and death of a particular subject, and the cry of a prisoner: it is upon persons that were highly in his favour; whereby his majesty, to his great honour, hath showed to the world, as if it were written in a sunbeam, that he is truly the lieutenant of Him with whom there is no respect of persons; that his affections royal are above his affections private; that his favours and nearness about him are not like popish sanctuaries, to privilege malefactors; and that his being the best master in the world, doth not let him from being the best king in the world. His people, on the other side, may say to themselves, I will lie down in peace, for God, the king, and the law, protect me against great and small. It may be a discipline also to great men, especially such as are swoln in their fortunes from small beginnings, that the king is

as well able to level mountains, as to fill valleys, if such be their desert.

But to come to the present case: The great frame of justice, my lords, in this present action, hath a vault, and hath a stage; a vault, wherein these works of darkness were contrived; and a stage, with steps, by which it was brought to light.

For the former of these, I will not lead your lordships into it, because I will engrieve nothing against a penitent; neither will I open any thing against him that is absent. The one I will give to the laws of humanity, and the other to the laws of justice: for I shall always serve my master with a good and sincere conscience, and, I know, that he accepteth best. Therefore, I will reserve that till to-morrow, and hold myself to that which I called the stage or theatre, whereunto indeed it may be fitly compared: for that things were first contained within the invisible judgments of God, as within a curtain, and after came forth, and were acted most worthily by the king, and right well by his ministers.

Sir Thomas Overbury was murdered by poison, September 15, 1613. This foul and cruel murder did for a time cry secretly in the ears of God; but God gave no answer to it, otherwise than by that voice, which sometimes he useth, which is "vox populi," the speech of the people: for there went then a murmur that Overbury was poisoned; and yet the same submiss and low voice of God, the speech of the vulgar people, was not without a counter-tenor or counter-blast of the devil, who is the common author both of murder and slander; for it was given out that Overbury was dead of a foul disease; and his body, which they had made "corpus Judaicum" with their poisons, so as it had no whole part, must be said to be leprosed with vice, and so his name poisoned as well as his body. For as to dissoluteness, I have not heard the gentleman noted with it; his faults were of insolency, turbulency, and the like of that kind.

Mean time there was some industry used, of which I will not now speak, to lull asleep those that were the revengers of the blood, the father and the brother of the murdered. And in these terms things stood by the space of two years, during which time, God did so blind the two great procurers, and dazzle them with their greatness; and blind, and nail fast the actors and instruments with security upon their protection, as neither the one looked about them, nor the other stirred or fled, or were conveyed away, but remained here still, as under a privy arrest of God's judgments; insomuch as Franklin, that should have been sent over to the Palsgrave with good store of money, was, by God's providence, and the accident of a marriage of his, diverted and stayed.

*

But about the beginning of the progress the last summer, God's judgments began to come out of their depths. And, as the revealing of murder is commonly such as a man said, "a Domino hoc factum est; it is God's work, and it is marvellous in our eyes:" so in this particular it was most admirable; for it came forth first by a compliment, a matter of courtesy. My Lord of Shrewsbury, that is now with God, recommended to a counsellor of state, of special trust by his place, the late lieutenant Helwisse, only for acquaintance, as an honest and worthy gentleman, and desired him to know him, and to be acquainted with him. That counsellor answered him civilly, that my lord did him a favour, and that he should embrace it willingly; but he must let his lordship know, that there did lie a heavy imputation upon that gentleman, Helwisse; for that Sir Thomas Overbury, his prisoner, was thought to have come to a violent and an untimely death. When this speech was reported back by my Lord of Shrewsbury to Helwisse, “percussit illico animum," he was strucken with it: and being a politic man, and of likelihood doubting that the matter would break forth at one time or other, and that others might have the start of him, and thinking to make his own case by his own tale, resolved with himself upon this occasion to discover unto my Lord of Shrewsbury, and that counsellor, that there was an attempt, whereunto he was privy, to have poisoned Overbury by the hands of his under-keeper, Weston; but that he checked it, and put it by, and dissuaded it. But then he left it thus, that it was but as an attempt, or an untimely birth, never executed; and, as if his own fault had been no more, but that he was honest in forbidding, but fearful of revealing and impeaching, or accusing great persons: and so with this fine point thought to save himself.

But that counsellor of estate, wisely considering that, by the lieutenant's own tale, it could not be simply a permission or weakness: for that Weston was never displaced by the lieutenant, notwithstanding that attempt; and coupling the sequel by the beginning, thought it matter fit to be brought before his majesty, by whose appointment Helwisse set down the like declaration in writing.

Upon this ground the king playeth Solomon's part, "Gloria Dei celare rem, et gloria Regis investigare rem," and sets down certain papers of his own hand, which I might term to be "claves justitiæ," keys of justice; and may serve both for a precedent for princes to imitate, and for a direction for judges to follow. And his majesty carried the balance with a constant and steady hand, evenly, and without prejudice,

* Called in Sir H. Wotton's Reliq. p. 413, Elvis. In Sir A. Welden's Court of King James, p. 107, Elwaies. In Aulic.

Coquin. p. 141, Ellowaies. In Sir W. Dugdale's Baron, of England, tom. ii. p. 425, Elwayes. In Baker, p. 434, Yelvis.

whether it were a true accusation of the one part, or a practice and factious scandal of the other: which writing, because I am not able to express according to the worth thereof, I will desire your lordships anon to hear read.

This excellent foundation of justice being laid by his majesty's own hand, it was referred unto some counsellors to examine farther; who gained some degrees of light from Weston, but yet left it imperfect.

After it was referred to Sir Edward Coke, chief justice of the king's bench, as a person best practised in legal examinations; who took a great deal of indefatigable pains in it without intermission, having, as I have heard him say, taken at least three hundred examinations in this business.

But these things were not done in a corner; I need not speak of them. It is true that my lord chief justice, in the dawning and opening of the light, finding the matter touched upon these great persons, very discreetly became suitor to the king, to have greater persons than his own rank joined with him; whereupon your lordships, my Lord High Steward of England, my Lord Steward of the King's House, and my Lord Zouch, were joined with him.

Neither wanted there, this while, practice to suppress testimony, to deface writings, to weaken the king's resolution, to slander the justice, and the like. Nay, when it came to the first solemn act of justice, which was the arraignment of Weston, he had his lesson to stand mute, which had arrested the whole wheel of justice, but this dumb devil, by the means of some discreet divines, and the potent charm of justice together, was cast out; neither did this poisonous adder stop his ear to these charms, but relented, and yielded to his trial.

Then followed the other proceedings of justice against the other offenders, Turner, Helwisse, Franklin.

But all these being but the organs and instruments of this fact, the actors, and not the authors, justice could not have been crowned without this last act against these great persons; else Weston's censure or prediction might have been verified, when he said, he hoped the small flies should not be caught, and the greater escape. Wherein the king, being in great straits between the defacing of his honour, and of his creature, hath, according as he used to do, chosen the better part, reserving always mercy to himself.

The time also of justice hath had its true motions. The time until this lady's deliverance was due unto honour, Christianity, and humanity, in respect of her great belly. The time since was due to another kind of deliverance too; which was, that some causes of estate which were in the womb might likewise be brought forth, not

But, my lords, where I speak of a stage, I doubt I hold you upon the stage too long. But, before I pray judgment, I pray your lordships to hear the king's papers read, that you may see how well the king was inspired, and how nobly

Frances, Countess of Somerset, hath been indicted and arraigned, as accessary before the fact, for the murder and impoisonment of Sir Thomas Overbury, and hath pleaded guilty, and confesseth the indictment: I pray judgment against the prisoner.

You have here before you Robert, Earl of Somerset, to be tried for his life, concerning the procuring and consenting to the impoisonment of Sir Thomas Overbury, then the king's prisoner in the Tower of London, as an accessary before the fact.

I know your lordships cannot behold this nobleman, but you must remember his great favour with the king, and the great place that he hath had and borne, and must be sensible that he is yet of your number and body, a peer as you are; so that you cannot cut him off from your body but with grief; and, therefore, that you will expect from us, that give in the king's evidence, sound and sufficient matter of proof to satisfy your honours and consciences.

As for the manner of the evidence, the king our master, who among his other virtues excelleth in that virtue of the imperial throne, which is justice, hath given us in commandment that we should not expatiate, nor make invectives, but materially pursue the evidence, as it conduceth to the point in question; a matter that, though we are glad of so good a warrant, yet, we should have done of ourselves for far be it from us, by any strains of wit or art, to seek to play prizes, or to blazon our names in blood, or to carry the day otherwise than upon just grounds. We shall carry the lantern of justice, which is the evidence, before VOL. II.-41

your eyes upright, and to be able to save it from being put out with any winds of evasion or vain defences, that is our part; and within that we shall contain ourselves, not doubting at all, but that the evidence itself will carry such force as it shall need no vantage or aggravation.

My lords, the course which I will hold in delivering that which I shall say, for I love order, shall be this:

First, I will speak somewhat of the nature and greatness of the offence which is now to be tried; not to weigh down my lord with the greatness of it, but, contrariwise, to show that a great offence deserveth a great proof, and that the king, however he might esteem this gentleman heretofore, as the signet upon his finger, to use the Scripture phrase, yet in such case as this he was to put him off.

Secondly, I will use some few words touching the nature of the proofs, which in such a case are competent.

Thirdly, I will state the proofs.

Fourthly and lastly, I will produce the proofs, either out of examinations and matters in writing, or witnesses, "viva voce."

For the offence itself, it is of crimes, next unto high treason, the greatest; it is the foulest of felonies. And, take this offence with the circumstances, it hath three degrees or stages; that it is