If he had declined, he could not, perhaps, have done the service which he assures us that he tried to do for Essex; and it is certain that he would have had to reckon with the terrible lady who in her old age still ruled England from the throne of Henry VIII., and who had certainly no great love for Bacon himself.

She had already shown him in a much smaller matter what was the forfeit to be paid for any resistance to her will.

All the hopes of his life must perish; all the grudging and suspicious favours which he had won with such unremitting toil and patient waiting would be sacrificed, and he would henceforth live under the wrath of those who never forgave.

And whatever he did for himself, he believed that he was serving Essex.

His scheming imagination and his indefatigable pen were at work.