But, of course, a man might have powerful enemies, and the sentence might be pressed.

His fine might be assigned to some favourite; and he might be mined, even if in the long run he was pardoned; or he might remain indefinitely a prisoner.

Raleigh had remained to perish at last in dishonour.

Northumberland, Raleigh's fellow-prisoner, after fifteen years' captivity, was released this year.
The year after Bacon's condemnation such criminals as Lord and Lady Somerset were released from the Tower, after a six years' imprisonment.
Southampton, the accomplice of Essex, Suffolk, sentenced as late as 1619 by Bacon for embezzlement, sat in the House of Peers which judged Bacon, and both of them took a prominent part in judging him.
To Bacon the sentence was ruinous.

It proved an irretrievable overthrow as regards public life, and, though some parts of it were remitted and others lightened, it plunged his private affairs into trouble which weighed heavily on him for his few remaining years.