This submission was uttered with so much eloquence, and in so pathetic a manner, that it drew tears from many of the audience.[**] All the privy counsellors, in giving their judgment, made no scruple of doing the earl justice with regard to the loyalty of his intentions.

Even Cecil, whom he believed his capital enemy, treated him with regard and humanity.

And the sentence pronounced by the lord keeper, (to which the council assented,) was in these words: "If this cause," said he, "had been heard in the star chamber, my sentence must have been for as great a fine as ever was set upon any man's head in that court, together with perpetual confinement in that prison which belongeth to a man of his quality, the Tower.

But since we are now in another place, and in a course of favor, my censure is, that the earl of Essex is not to execute the office of a counsellor, nor that of earl marshal of England, nor of master of the ordnance; and to return to his own house, there to continue a prisoner till it shall please her majesty to release this and all the rest of his sentence."[***] The earl of Cumberland made a slight opposition to this sentence; and said, that if he thought it would stand, he would have required a little more time to deliberate; that he deemed it somewhat severe; and that any commander-in-chief might easily incur a like penalty.
* Sidney's Letters, vol.ii.p.

200.
** Sidney's Letters, vol.ii.p.