means at any rate of obtaining an audience, in which he might he able to represent his own case.' He listened, however, to this dangerous advice without consenting to it, till he despaired of getting his Farming of the Sweet Wines renewed: upon which, among other extravagant expressions, he observed, "that the Queen grew old and cankered, and that her mind was as crooked as her carcase." This, as Camden informs us, was aggravated by some of the courtladies, whom he had disappointed in their intrigues. He, also, carried on a secret correspondence with James VI., King of Scotland, the object of which was to procure a public declaration of his right of succession to the English throne; and he would even have engaged his friend Lord Mountjoy, Deputy of Ireland, to bring over troops in order to compel the measure. But his zeal in this matter, however imprudent, appears completely to acquit him of any intention of claiming the crown for himself, with which he has been charged: although some of his sanguine partisans, in reference to his maternal descent, injudiciously brought forward his name.

His fortune having now reached it's crisis, and he himself being ripened for the most desperate projects, a conspiracy was formed in his little circle to seize the person of Elizabeth, remove from her his enemies, and settle a new plan of government. Those enemies, who had exact intelligence of all his measures, hurried him upon his fate by a message sent on the evening of the seventh of February, 1601, requiring him to attend the council, which he declined. He then announced, that they sought his life, kept a watch in Essex-House all night, and summoned his friends for his defence the next morning.

The Queen, apprised of the great resort of people of all ranks to his mansion, sent the Lord Keeper, the Earl of Worcester, Sir Francis Knollys, and the Lord Chief Justice Popham, to learn his grievances. These envoys, after a short and ineffectual conference, he confined; and then, attended by the Earls of Rutland and Southampton, Lord Sands, Lord Monteagle, and about two hundred gentlemen, proceeded into the city, where the Earl of Bedford, Lord Cromwell, and some other gentlemen joined his party. But his dependence on the populace failed him; and Cecil having prevailed upon his brother, Lord Burghley, to go with Sir Gilbert Dethick (then King at Arms) and proclaim Essex and his adherents traitors' in the principal streets, he found it impossible to reach his house by land: upon which, he despatched Sir Ferdinando Gorges to release the Chief Justice; and with his principal attendants, returned home by water. The house was quickly invested with a large force by the Earl of Nottingham, to whom, after some blood spilt, he and his associates at last surrendered themselves. He was carried that night, with his friend the Earl of Southampton,* to the Archbishop of Can

* As a proof at once of Essex's true piety, and of his genuine friendship, I have added one of his letters to this nobleman; 'MY LORD,

As neither nature nor custom ever made me a man of com pliment, so now I shall have less will than ever for to use such ceremonies, when I have left with Martha to be solicitus circa multa, and believe with Mary, unum sufficit. But it is no compliment or ceremony, but a real and necessary duty that one friend oweth to another in absence, and especially at their leave taking, when in man's reason many accidents may keep them

terbury's palace at Lambeth; and, the next day, they were both conveyed to the Tower.

long divided, or perhaps bar them ever meeting till they meet in another world: for then shall I think that my friend, whose honour, whose person, and whose fortune is dear unto me, shall prosper and be happy wherever he goes, and whatever he takes in hand, when he is in the favour of that God, under whose protection there is only safety, and in whose service there is only true happiness to be found. What I think of your natural gifts or ability in this age, or in this state, to give glory to God, and to win honour to yourself, if you employ the talents have received to their best use, I will now tell you. It sufficeth, that when I was farthest of all times from dissembling, I spake truly, and have witness enough; but these things only I will put your Lordship in mind of:

you

First, That you have nothing, that you have not received. 'Secondly, That you possess them not as lord over them, but as an accomptant for them.

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Thirdly, If you employ them to serve this world, or your own worldly delights (which the prince of this world will seek to entertain you with) it is ingratitude, it is injustice, yea, it is perfidious treachery. For what would you think of such a servant of yours, that should convert your goods, committed to his charge, to the advantage or service of your greatest enemy: and what do you less than this with God, since you have all from him, and know that the world, and the princes thereof, are at a continual enmity with him? And therefore, if ever the admonition of your true friend shall be heard by you, or if your country, which you may serve in so great and many things, be dear unto you; if your God, whom you must (if you deal truly with yourself) acknowledge to be powerful over all, and just in all, be feared by you; yea, if you be dear unto yourself, and prefer an everlasting happiness before a pleasant dream, which you must shortly awake out of, and then repent in the bitterness of your soul: if any of these things be regarded by you, then I say, call yourself to account for what is past, cancel the leagues you have made without the warrant of a religious conscience, make a resolute covenant with your God, to serve him with all your natural and spiritual, inward and outward gifts and

Great pains were now taken by his chaplains, to draw from him copious confessions, which was the

abilities; and then he that is faithful, and cannot lie, hath promised to honour them that honour him. He will give you that inward peace of soul, and true joy of heart, which till you have, you shall never rest; and which, when you have, you shall never be shaken, and which you can never attain to, any other way than this I have showed you. I know your Lordship may say to yourself, and object to me, this is but a vapour of melan choly, and the stile of a prisoner, and that I was far enough from it, when I lived in the world as you do now, and may be so again, when my fetters be taken from me.' I answer, 'though your Lordship should think so, yet cannot I distrust the goodness of my God, that his mercy will fail me, or his grace for sake me. I have so deeply engaged myself, that I should be one of the most miserable apostates that ever was: I have so avowed my profession, and called so many from time to time to witness it, and to be watchmen over me, that I should be the hollowest hypocrite that ever was born.' But though I should perish in my own sin, and draw upon myself my own damnation, should not you take hold of the grace and mercy in God which is offered unto you, and make your profit of my fearful and wretched example? I was longer a slave and servant to the world, and the corruptions of it, than you have been, and therefore could hardly be drawn from it. I had many calls, and answered some of them slowly; thinking a soft pace fast enough to come to Christ, and myself forward enough when I saw the end of my journey, though I arrived not at it: and therefore I have been, by God's providence, violently pulled, hauled, and dragged to the marriage feast, as the world hath seen. It was just with God to afflict me in this world, that he might give me joy in another. I had too much knowledge, when I performed too little obedience, and was therefore to be beaten with double stripes: God grant your Lordship may feel the comfort I now enjoy in my unfeigned conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I have suffered for my too long delaying it. I had none but divines to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have entered into their narrow hearts, they would not have been so humble; or, if my delights had been tasted by

more easy, as he was a man of sincere piety; and being once persuaded that his project was of a treasonable nature, he conscientiously disclosed all he knew, though it was highly prejudicial to his friends without doing any good to himself: which, indeed, he did not appear either to design, or to desire that it should.

On the nineteenth of February, he and Southampton were brought to their trial before twentyfive peers, who unanimously found them guilty of high-treason. Southampton received his sentence as a man sensible of the crime, of which he had been guilty. Serene and submissive, he entreated the good offices of his brother-nobles in such pathetic terms, that to them most probably he owed his pardon; as he had previously laboured under the Queen's displeasure, in consequence of having married without her consent. Essex, on the contrary,

them, they could not have been so precise:' but your Lordship hath one to call upon you, that knows what it is you now enjoy, and what the greatest fruit and end is of all the contentments that this world can afford. Think therefore, dear Earl, that I have stated and buoyed all the ways of pleasure to you, and left them as sea-marks for you to keep the channel of religious virtue: for shut your eyes never so long, they must be open at last; then you must say with me, there is no peace to the wicked. I will make a covenant with my soul, not to suffer my eyes to sleep in the night, nor my thoughts to attend the first business of the day, till I have prayed to my God, that your Lordship may believe and make profit of this plain but faithful admonition: and then I know your country and friends shall be happy in you, and yourself successful in all you take in hand; which shall be an unspeakable comfort to

Your Lordship's cousin and true friend,

whom no worldly cause can divide from you,

ESSEX.