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fail in their ends, to have even ‘drawn blood from herself.’ The gatherings at Essex House had attracted the attention of the Court, and on Saturday the 7th of February Essex was summoned before the Privy Council. He refused to go; and in the evening, fearing that the Lords knew more than they did, proposed to make the attack. But the guards were doubled at Whitehall, and next morning Charing Cross and Westminster were barricaded. There was nothing now left but to raise the City. At ten o’clock on Sunday morning, the Lord Keeper, the Earl of Worcester, Sir William Knollys, and the Lord Chief Justice repaired to Essex House. Essex’s men had been running hither and thither all night to summon his friends, and by this time wellnigh three hundred were assembled. The arrival of the Lord Keeper precipitated their action, Essex cried out that he should be murdered in his bed, that his enemies had forged his name, and that he was armed in self-defence. The Lord Keeper promised that he should have justice done, but it was now too late. Essex left him and his companions prisoners, and rushed out with some two hundred followers on foot, crying hysterically that plots were laid against his life, and that the country was sold to the Spaniard. Not a man stirred in his defence. The conspirators marched through the City as far as Fenchurch Street to the house of Sheriff Smith, and there Essex showed signs that his nerve had forsaken him. Making their way back to Ludgate Hill, they found the street closed against them. A fight ensued, in which one or two were slain on either side, Essex was shot through the hat, Blount wounded and taken prisoner. The Earl, with some fifty followers, escaped by water to Essex House, and by ten o’clock in the evening surrendered. And so ended this miserable and ‘fatal impatience.’ But there was evidently a mystery which the Court had not penetrated, and to unravel it Bacon with others of her Majesty’s counsel was employed. They soon discovered the true nature of the plot. Judgement followed swiftly upon the offenders. On the 19th of February Essex and Southampton were arraigned. The evidence against