He was bringing into England, which had settled down into peaceable ways, an imitation of the violent methods of France and the Guises.

But the crime as well as the penalty belonged to the age, and crimes legally said to be against the State mean morally very different things, according to the state of society and opinion.

It is an unfairness verging on the ridiculous, when the ground is elaborately laid for keeping up the impression that Essex was preparing a real treason against the Queen like that of Norfolk.

It was a treason of the same sort and order as that for which Northumberland sent Somerset to the block: the treason of being an unsuccessful rival.
Meanwhile Bacon had been getting gradually into the unofficial employ of the Government.

He had become one of the "Learned Counsel"-- lawyers with subordinate and intermittent work, used when wanted, but without patent or salary, and not ranking with the regular law officers.