had anything to say why judgment should not be pronounced against him, he replied that he was perfectly innocent of the charges of Cobham, but that he submitted himself to the king's mercy, and recommended to the compassion of his majesty his wife and his son of tender years. After the sentence of high treason, with all its disgusting details had been pronounced, the prisoner asked to speak privately with Cecil, lord Henry Howard, and the earls of Suffolk and Devonshire, entreating them that, in consideration of the position which he had held under the crown, his death might not be so ignominious as the strict sentence required. They promised to use their influence, and he was taken back to the castle.
The admirable defence of Sir Walter produced the most wonderful effect on all that heard him, causing a thorough revolution of opinion in his favour. Sir Dudley Carlton, as reported in the Hardwicke State Papers, said "That he answered with that temper, wit, learning, courage, and judgment, that, save it went with the hazard of his life, it was the happiest day that ever he spent. And so well he shifted all advantages that were taken against him, that were not fama mala gravius quam res, and an ill name half-hanged, in the opinion of all men he had been acquitted. The two first that brought the news to the king were Roger Ashton and a Scotchman, whereof one affirmed that never man spoke so well in times past, nor would do in the world to come; and the other said that whereas, when he saw him first, he was so led with the common hatred, that he would have gone a hundred miles to have seen him hanged, he would, ere he parted, have gone a thousand to have saved his life. In one word never was a man so hated and so popular in so short a time.
There can be little doubt that the King and Cecil were both jealous of Raleigh's brilliant and popular talents, and were glad to have him in their power. But Raleigh had been his own worst enemy, in not displaying a nature as generous and noble, as it was highly endowed. He had endeavoured to pull down Essex, and the people never forgave him for it. Even at this moment, when his masterly conduct and his unrivalled oratorical genius had won him such admiration and good-will amongst those who heard him, the people, as we learn from a contemporary, expressed their contempt and aversion for him on account of his desertion and betrayal of Essex. All through London and the other towns through which he passed to his trial, the people followed, him with execrations, and threw mud, stones, and tobacco pipes, at the coach in which he was.
The charges which were made against Arabella Stuart, in the indictment against Raleigh, were of a nature which called for denial on her part. She was present at the trial in a gallery; and Charles Howard, earl of Nottingham, who was sitting by her, arose, and in her name protested, on her salvation, that she had never meddled in any such matters. There appeared, indeed, no disposition at this moment to implicate the lady Arabella, though her relation to the crown made her an object of anxiety to James, as we shall soon have occasion to see. Cecil himself acquitted her of any concern in this treason, admitting that though she had received a letter from Cobham, entreating her to countenance it, she only laughed at it, and at once sent it to the king. Of the actual extent of Raleigh's participation, and what was his real object, we have no means of judging, for though James was in possession of the letters betwixt the accused parties and Aremberg, they were never produced.
Cobham and Grey were arraigned before a tribunal of their peers, consisting of eleven earls and nineteen barons. Nothing could be more striking than the cowardice and meanness of Cobham, and the noble dignity of Grey. Cobham was all fear and trembling, ready to accuse everybody to excuse himself. He repeatedly interrupted the reading of the indictment to protest against what he declared was not true; and at its conclusion said that he meant to have confessed everything, but as so many untruths were mixed with the truths in the indictment, he was compelled to plead not guilty. He denied any design of setting up Arabella Stuart, though she admitted that he had sent her a letter to that effect; and his cringing, obsequious manner to his judges, was in strange contrast with the bitterness with which he accused not only Raleigh, but his own brother George Brooke, whom he pronounced a most wicked wretch, murderer, and viper. He not only declared that what he had said of Raleigh in his letters was true, but he accused the youth Harvey, the son of the lieutenant of the Tower, of having engaged to carry letters between them. "Thus," says Sir Dudley Carleton, "having accused all his friends, and so little excused himself, the peers were not long in deliberating what to judge; and after sentence of condemnation given, he begged a great while for life and favour, alleging his confession as a meritorious act." The same authority says that to move the king, he reminded him that the king's father was his godfather, and that his own father had suffered imprisonment for the king's mother.
Very different was the conduct of lord Grey of Wilton. Though he was a young man with everything to make life desirable, he manifested no such contemptible fear of death as Cobham did; far less did he seek to exculpate himself by the betrayal of his friends. He defended himself in a long speech of the most elevated and eloquent description. He fought the whole ground with the crown lawyers manfully, from eight in the morning to eight at night. His judges admired and commiserated him as much as they despised Cobham, and would fain have acquitted him, but the proofs were too strong. He was condemned, and on being asked why sentence of death should not be pronounced against him, he replied, "I have nothing to say;" but then, as if recollecting himself, he added, "and yet a word of Tacitus comes into my mind—'Non cadem omnibus decora.' The house of the Wiltons hath spent many lives in their princes' service, and Grey cannot beg his. God send the king a long and prosperous reign, and to your lordships all honour."
The two priests were first conducted to execution. They suffered all the bloody horrors of the law at Winchester, on the 29th of November. It was surmised that James was glad to be rid of Watson as one of the individuals to whom, before coming to the English throne, he had promised toleration to the catholics. There was an attempt to prove the non-existence of such a promise, by the earl of Northampton visiting him in prison, and on his return asserting that he denied having received any such promise; but this obtained no credit. At the gallows both Watson and Clarke declared their conviction that they owed their death to their priesthood. They were cut down alive, and their bowels torn out.
The next execution was that of Brooke. He was simply beheaded, also at Winchester, on the 5th of December. The
