ALBAN." Bacon always claimed that he was not "vindicative." But considering how Bishop Williams, when he was Lord Keeper, had charged Bacon with "knavery" and "deceiving his creditors" in the arrangements about his fine, it is not a little strange to find that at the end of his life Bacon had so completely made friends with him that he chose him as the person to whom he meant to leave his speeches and letters, which he was "willing should not be lost," and also the charge of superintending two foundations of L200 a year for Natural Science at the universities.

And the Bishop accepted the charge.
The end of this, one of the most pathetic of histories, was at hand; the end was not the less pathetic because it came in so homely a fashion.

On a cold day in March he stopped his coach in the snow on his way to Highgate, to try the effect of cold in arresting putrefaction.

He bought a hen from a woman by the way, and stuffed it with snow.

He was taken with a bad chill, which forced him to stop at a strange house, Lord Arundel's, to whom he wrote his last letter--a letter of apology for using his house.