He knew, too, that in those days to resist in earnest an accusation was apt to be taken as an insult to the court which entertained it.

And further, for the prosecutor to accept a submission and confession without pushing to the formality of a public trial, and therefore a public exposure, was a favour.

It was a favour which by his advice, as against the King's honour, had been refused to Suffolk; it was a favour which, in a much lighter charge, had by his advice been refused to his colleague Yelverton only a few months before, when Bacon, in sentencing him, took occasion to expatiate on the heinous guilt of misprisions or mistakes in men in high places.

The humiliation was not complete without the trial, but it was for humiliation and not fair investigation that the trial was wanted.

Bacon knew that the trial would only prolong his agony, and give a further triumph to his enemies.
That there was any plot against Bacon, and much more that Buckingham to save himself was a party to it, is of course absurd.