And yet on the highest seat of justice in the realm he, the great reformer of its abuses, allowed them to make their customary haunt.

He did not mean to do wrong: his conscience was clear; he had not given thought to the mischief they must do, sooner or later, to all concerned with the Court of Chancery.

With a magnificent carelessness he could afford to run safely a course closely bordering on crime, in which meaner men would sin and be ruined.
Before six months were over Bacon found on what terms he must stand with Buckingham.

By a strange fatality, quite unintentionally, he became dragged into the thick of the scandalous and grotesque dissensions of the Coke family.

The Court was away from London in the North; and Coke had been trying, not without hope of success, to recover the King's favour.