Page:The Advancement of Learning (Wright, 5th ed).pdf/28

‘I am not servile to him, having regard to my superior duty. I have been much bound unto him. And on the other side, I have spent more time and more thoughts about his well-doing than ever I did about mine own.’ Still he had no suspicion of the dangerous secrets of which Essex was conscious. His counsel was as ever patience, and for a time the Earl, to the outer world at least, seemed heedful of his advice. To his intimates he presented another aspect. ‘In my laste discourse,’ says Sir John Harington, ‘he uttered strange wordes, borderynge on suche strange desygns that made me hastene forthe, and leave his presence; thank heaven I am safe at home, and if I go in suche troubles againe, I deserve the gallowes for a meddlynge foole: His speeches of the Queene becomethe no man who hathe mens sana in corpore sano.’ (Nugae Antiquae, ii. 225, ed. 1779.) His patent for the monopoly of sweet wines was to expire at Michaelmas, and he petitioned for a renewal of the lease. His petition was refused and his patience at an end. From this time the Queen, who evidently was better informed than Bacon as to what Essex had really done, and supposed that Bacon knew as much as herself, was so angry at his importunity for his friend that she would no longer see him. For three months this estrangement lasted. It was not till after New Year’s Day, 1600-1, that Bacon was admitted to her presence, and then boldly and ‘with some passion’ spoke his mind. ‘Madam, I see you withdraw your favour from me, and now that I have lost many friends for your sake, I shall leese you too . . . . A great many love me not, because they think I have been against my Lord of Essex; and you love me not, because you know I have been for him: yet will I never repent me, that I have dealt in simplicity of heart towards you both, without respect of cautions to myself, and therefore vivus vidensque pereo.” The Queen was moved by the earnestness of his protestations, and spoke kindly to him as of old; but of Essex never a word. Henceforth Bacon determined to meddle no more in the matter, and never saw the Queen again till the Earl had put himself beyond the reach of intercession. He