State Trials, Political and Social Volume I Part 5

Excepting your faults (I call them no worse), by G.o.d I am your friend. The heat and pa.s.sion in you, and the Attorney's zeal in the king's service, make me speak this.

RALEIGH--Whosoever is the workman, it is reason he should give an account of his work to his workmaster. But let it be proved that he acquainted me with any of his conferences with Aremberg: he would surely have given me some account.

LORD CECIL--That follows not: if I set you on work, and you give me no account, am I therefore innocent?

ATTORNEY--For the lady Arabella, I said she was never acquainted with the matter. Now that Raleigh had conference in all these treasons, it is manifest. The jury hath heard the matter. There is one Dyer, a pilot, that being in Lisbon met with a Portugal gentleman, who asked him if the king of England was crowned yet: to whom he answered, 'I think not yet, but he shall be shortly.' Nay, saith the Portugal, that shall never be, for his throat will be cut by Don Raleigh and Don Cobham before he be crowned.

_Dyer_ was called and sworn, and delivered this evidence.

DYER--I came to a merchant's house in Lisbon, to see a boy that I had there; there came a gentleman into the house, and enquiring what countryman I was, I said, an Englishman.

Whereupon he asked me, if the king was crowned? And I answered, No, but that I hoped he should be shortly. Nay, saith he, he shall never be crowned; for Don Raleigh and Don Cobham shall cut his throat ere that day come.

RALEIGH--What infer you upon this?

ATTORNEY--That your treason hath wings.

RALEIGH--If Cobham did practice with Aremberg, how could it not but be known in Spain? Why did they name the Duke of Buckingham with Jack Straw's treason, and the Duke of York with Jack Cade, but that it was to countenance his treason? Consider, you Gentlemen of the Jury, there is no cause so doubtful which the king's council cannot make good against the law. Consider my disability and their ability; they prove nothing against me, only they bring the accusation of my lord Cobham which he hath repented and lamented as heartily, as if it had been for an horrible murder: for he knew that all this sorrow that should come to me, is by his means. Presumptions must proceed from precedent or subsequent facts. I have spent 40,000 crowns against the Spaniards. I had not purchased 40 a year. If I had died in Guiana, I had not left 300 marks a year to my wife and son. I that have always condemned Spanish faction, methinks it is a strange thing that now I should affect it! Remember what St. Austin says, _Sic judicate tanquam ab alio mox judicandi; unus judex, unum tribunal_. If you will be contented on presumptions to be delivered up to be slaughtered, to have your wives and children turned into the streets to beg their bread; if you will be contented to be so judged, judge so of me.

SERJ. PHILIPS--I hope to make this so clear, as that the wit of man shall have no colour to answer it. The matter is treason in the highest degree, the end to deprive the king of his crown.

The particular treasons are these: first, to raise up rebellion, and to effect that, to procure money; to raise up tumults in Scotland, by divulging a treasonable Book against the king's right to the crown; the purpose, to take away the life of his majesty and his issue. My lord Cobham confesseth sir Walter to be guilty of all these treasons. The question is, whether he be guilty as joining with him, or instigating of him? The course to prove this was by my lord Cobham's accusation. If that be true, he is guilty, if not he is clear. So whether Cobham say true, or Raleigh, that is the question. Raleigh hath no answer but the shadow of as much wit as the wit of man can devise. He useth his bare denial; the denial of a defendant must not move the jury.

In the Star Chamber, or in the Chancery, for matter of t.i.tle, if the defendant be called in question, his denial on his oath is no evidence to the court to clear him, he doth it _in propria causa_; therefore much less in matters of treason. Cobham's testification against him before them, and since, hath been largely discoursed.

RALEIGH--If truth be constant, and constancy be in truth, why hath he forsworn that that he hath said? You have not proved any one thing against me by direct proofs, but all by circ.u.mstances.

ATTORNEY--Have you done? The king must have the last.

RALEIGH--Nay, Mr. Attorney, he which speaketh for his life, must speak last. False repet.i.tions and mistakings must not mar my cause. You should speak _secundum allegata et probata_. I appeal to G.o.d and the king in this point whether Cobham's accusation is sufficient to condemn me.

ATTORNEY--The king's safety and your clearing cannot agree. I protest before G.o.d, I never knew a clearer treason.

RALEIGH--I never had intelligence with Cobham since I came to the Tower.

ATTORNEY--Go to, I will lay thee upon thy back, for the confidentest traitor that ever came at a bar. Why should you take 8,000 crowns for a peace?

LORD CECIL--Be not so impatient, good Mr. Attorney. Give him leave to speak.

ATTORNEY--If I may not be patiently heard, you will encourage traitors and discourage us. I am the king's sworn servant, and must speak; if he be guilty, he is a traitor; if not, deliver him.

(_Note._--Here Mr. Attorney sat down in a chafe and would speak no more until the commissioners urged and intreated him. After much ado, he went on, and made a long repet.i.tion of all the evidence for the direction of the jury; and at the repeating of some things, sir Walter Raleigh interrupted him and said he did him wrong.)

ATTORNEY--Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived.

RALEIGH--You speak indiscreetly, barbarously, and uncivilly.

ATTORNEY--I want words sufficient to express thy viperous treasons.

RALEIGH--I think you want words indeed, for you have spoken one thing half a dozen times.

ATTORNEY--Thou art an odious fellow, thy name is hateful to all the realm of England for thy pride.

RALEIGH--It will go near to prove a measuring cast between you and me, Mr. Attorney.

ATTORNEY--Well, I will now make it appear to the world that there never lived a viler viper upon the face of the earth than thou.--And there withal he drew a letter out of his pocket saying further--My lords, you shall see this is an agent that hath writ a treatise against the Spaniard, and hath ever so detested him; this is he that hath spent so much money against him in service; and yet you shall all see whether his heart be not wholly Spanish. The lord Cobham, who of his own nature was a good and honourable gentleman, till overtaken by this wretch now finding his conscience heavily burdened with some courses which the subtlety of this traitor had drawn him into, my lords, he could be at no rest with himself, nor quiet in his thoughts, until he was eased of that heavy weight: out of which pa.s.sion of his mind and discharge of his duty to his prince and his conscience to G.o.d, taking it upon his salvation that he wrote nothing but the truth, with his own hands he wrote this letter.

Now sir, you shall see whether you had intelligence with Cobham within four days before he came to the Tower. If he be wholly Spanish, that desired a pension of 1500 a year from Spain, that Spain by him might have intelligence, then Raleigh is a traitor: he hath taken an apple and pinned a letter into it and threw it into my lord Cobham's window, the contents whereof were this, 'It is doubtful whether we shall be proceeded with or no, perhaps you shall not be tried.' This was to get a retractation.

Oh! it was Adam's apple whereby the devil did deceive him.

Further he wrote thus, 'Do not as my lord of Ess.e.x did; take heed of a preacher, for by his persuasion he confessed and made himself guilty.'[19] I doubt not but this day G.o.d shall have as great a conquest by this traitor, and the Son of G.o.d shall be as much glorified as when it was said _Vicisti Galilaee_; you know my meaning. What though Cobham retracted, yet he could not rest or sleep until he had confirmed it again. If this be not enough to prove him a traitor, the king my master shall not live three years to an end.

(_Note._--Here Mr. Attorney produced the lord Cobham's letter, and as he read it, inserted some speeches.)

'I have thought fit to set down this to my lords, wherein I protest on my soul to write nothing but the truth. I am now come near the period of my time, therefore I confess the whole truth before G.o.d and his angels. Raleigh, four days before I came from the Tower, caused an apple' (Eve's apple) 'to be thrown in at my chamber window; the effect of it was, to intreat me to right the wrong that I had done him, in saying, "that I should have come home by Jersey"; which under my hand to him I have retracted.

His first Letter I answered not, which was thrown in the same manner; wherein he prayed me to write him a Letter, which I did.

He sent me word, that the Judges met at Mr. Attorney's house, and that there was good hope the proceedings against us should be stayed: he sent me another time a little tobacco. At Aremberg's coming, Raleigh was to have procured a pension of 1500 a year, for which he promised, that no action should be against Spain, the Low Countries, or the Indies, but he would give knowledge beforehand. He told me, the States had audience with the king.'--(_Attorney._ 'Ah! is not this a Spanish heart in an English body?') 'He hath been the original cause of my ruin; for I had no dealing with Aremberg, but by his instigation. He hath also been the cause of my discontentment; he advised me, not to be overtaken by preachers, as Ess.e.x was; and that the king would better allow of a constant denial, than to accuse any.'

ATTORNEY--Oh, d.a.m.nable atheist! He hath learned some Text of Scripture to serve his own purpose, but falsely alledged. He counsels him not to be counselled by preachers, as Ess.e.x was: He died the child of G.o.d, G.o.d honoured him at his death; thou wast by when he died: _Et lupus et turpes instant morientibus Ursae_.

He died indeed for his offence. The king himself spake these words: 'He that shall say, Ess.e.x dies not for Treason, is punishable.'

RALEIGH--You have heard a strange tale of a strange man. Now he thinks, he hath matter enough to destroy me; but the king and all of you shall witness, by our deaths, which of us was the ruin of the other. I bid a poor fellow throw in the Letter at his window, written to this purpose; 'You know you have undone me, now write three lines to justify me.' In this I will die, that he hath done me wrong: Why did not he acquaint him with my dispositions?

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--But what say you now of the Letter, and the Pension of 1500 per annum?

RALEIGH--I say, that Cobham is a base, dishonourable, poor soul.

ATTORNEY--Is he base? I return it into thy throat on his behalf: but for thee he had been a good subject.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I perceive you are not so clear a man, as you have protested all this while; for you should have discovered these matters to the king.

(_Note._--Here Raleigh pulled a Letter out of his pocket, which the lord Cobham had written to him, and desired my lord Cecil to read it, because he only knew his hand; the effect of it was as follows:)

_Cobham's Letter of Justification to Raleigh._

'Seeing myself so near my end, for the discharge of my own conscience, and freeing myself from your blood, which else will cry vengeance against me; I protest upon my salvation I never practised with Spain by your procurement; G.o.d so comfort me in this my affliction, as you are a true subject, for any thing that I know. I will say as Daniel, _Purus sum a sanguine hujus_.

G.o.d have mercy upon my soul, as I know no Treason by you.'

RALEIGH--Now I wonder how many souls this man hath. He d.a.m.ns one in this Letter and another in that.

(Here was much ado: Mr. Attorney alledged, that his last Letter was politicly and cunningly urged from the lord Cobham, and that the first was simply the truth; and lest it should seem doubtful that the first Letter was drawn from my lord Cobham by promise of mercy, or hope of favour, the Lord Chief-Justice willed that the Jury might herein be satisfied. Whereupon the earl of Devons.h.i.+re delivered that the same was mere voluntary, and not extracted from the lord Cobham upon any hopes or promise of Pardon.)

This concluded the evidence, and the jury having retired for less than a quarter of an hour, they returned, and brought in a verdict of Guilty.

When asked whether he had anything to say why judgment should not be pa.s.sed upon him, Raleigh said that he had never practised with Spain, that he never knew that Cobham meant to get there ('I will ask no mercy at the king's hands, if he will affirm it'), that he never knew of the practice with lady Arabella, that he knew nothing of Cobham's practice with Aremberg, nor of the surprising Treason.

The Lord Chief-Justice replied that he was persuaded that Cobham had accused him truly, and reminded him that he had been offered a pension to act as a spy for Spain. Raleigh answered that he submitted himself, and his 'son of tender years, unbrought up,' to the king's mercy.

LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--I thought I should never have seen this day, to have stood in this place to give Sentence of Death against you; because I thought it impossible, that one of so great parts should have fallen so grievously. G.o.d hath bestowed on you many benefits. You had been a man fit and able to have served the king in good place. You had brought yourself into a good state of living; if you had entered into a good consideration of your estate and not allowed your own wit to have intrapped yourself, you might have lived in good comfort. It is best for man not to seek to climb too high, lest he fall: nor yet to creep too low, lest he be trodden on. It was the Poesy of the wisest and greatest Counsellor of our time in England, _In media spatio mediocria firma locantur_. You might have lived well with 3000 a year, for so have I heard your revenues to be. I know nothing might move you to be discontented: but if you had been down, you know fortune's wheel, when it is turned down, riseth again. I never heard that the king took away anything from you but the Captains.h.i.+p of the Guard, which he did with very good reason, to have one of his own knowledge, whom he might trust, in that place. You have been taken for a wise man, and so have shewed wit enough this day. Again for Monopolies for Wine, etc., if the king had said, It is a matter that offends my people, should I burden them for your private good? I think you could not well take it hardly, that his subjects were eased, though by your private hindrance. Two vices have lodged chiefly in you; one is an eager ambition, the other corrupt covetousness. Ambition, in desiring to be advanced to equal grace and favour, as you have been beforetime; that grace you had then, you got not in a day or year. For your covetousness, I am sorry to hear that a gentleman of your wealth should become a base Spy for the enemy, which is the vilest of all other; wherein on my conscience, Cobham hath said true: by it you would have increased your living 1500 a year. This covetousness is like canker, that eats the iron place where it lives. Your case being thus, let it not grieve you if I speak a little out of zeal, and love to your good. You have been taxed by the world, with the Defence of the most heathenish and blasphemous Opinions, which I list not to repeat, because Christian ears cannot endure to hear them, nor the authors and maintainers of them be suffered to live in any Christian Commonwealth. You know what men said of Harpool. You shall do well, before you go out of the world, to give satisfaction therein, and not die with these imputations on you.

Let not any devil persuade you to think there is no eternity in Heaven: for if you think thus, you shall find eternity in h.e.l.l-fire. In the first accusation of my lord Cobham, I observed his manner of speaking; I protest before the living G.o.d, I am persuaded he spoke nothing but the truth. You wrote, that he should not in any case confess any thing to a Preacher, telling him an example of my lord of Ess.e.x, that n.o.ble earl that is gone; who, if he had not been carried away with others, had lived in honour to this day among us: he confessed his offences, and obtained mercy of the Lord; for I am verily persuaded in my heart, he died a worthy servant of G.o.d. Your conceit of not confessing anything is very inhuman and wicked.

In this world is the time for confessing, that we may be absolved in the Day of Judgment. You have shewed a fearful sign of denying G.o.d, in advising a man not to confess the truth. It now comes to my mind, why you may not have your Accuser come face to face: for such an one is easily brought to retract, when he seeth there is no hope of his own life. It is dangerous that any Traitors should have access to, or conference with one another; when they see themselves must die, they will think it best to have their fellow live, that he may commit the like treason again, and so in some sort seek revenge.--Now it resteth to p.r.o.nounce the Judgment, which I wish you had not been this day to have received of me: for if the fear of G.o.d in you had been answerable to your other great parts, you might have lived to have been a singular good subject.

I never saw the like Trial, and hope I shall never see the like again.