By the time these letters had been carried backwards and forwards, to and from Scotland and the North of England, a later date had been reached than we have legitimately arrived at in our story, and we must now go back to within a few days of Sir Edward Coke’s famous raid at Oatlands.

FOOTNOTES: 

[14] Chief Justices, Vol.  I., pp. 297-298

[15] S.P.  Dom., James I., July, 1617.  Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton.

[16] Campbell, p. 298.

[17] Lord Campbell’s account.

[18] Quoted by Spedding in his Life of Bacon.

[19] Foard’s Life and Correspondence of Bacon, p. 421.

CHAPTER V.

“They’ve always been at daggers drawing,
And one another clapper-clawing.” 
Butler’s Hudibras, Hud., II, 2.

Bacon had scarcely written his first letters to Buckingham and the King, before he had instructed Yelverton, the Attorney-General, to institute a prosecution against Sir Edward Coke, in the Star Chamber, for the riot at Oatlands, which he made out to have been almost an act of war against the King, in his realm.

Her husband having carried away Frances by force, Lady Elizabeth made an effort to recover her by a similar method.  Gerrard wrote to Carleton[20] that Lady Elizabeth, having heard that Frances was to be taken to London, determined to meet her with an armed band and to wrest her from Coke’s power.

“The Mother she procureth a Warrant from the Counsell Table whereto were many of the Counsellors to take her agayne from him:  goes to meete her as she shold come up.  In the coach with her the Lord Haughton, Sir E. Lechbill, Sir Rob.  Rich, and others, with 3 score men and Pistolls; they mett her not, yf they had there had bin a notable skirmish, for the Lady Compton was with Mrs. French in the Coach, and there was Clem Coke, my Lord’s fighting sonne; and they all swore they would dye in the Place, before they would part with her.”

Without doubt, it was fortunate for both parties that they did not meet each other.  The attempt was a misfortune, as well as a defeat for Lady Elizabeth; for while she failed to rescue her daughter, she also gave her husband a fresh count to bring against her in the legal proceedings which he forthwith instituted:—­[21]

“1.  For conveying away her daughter clam et secrete. 2.  For endeavouring to bind her to my Lord Oxford without her father’s consent. 3.  For counterfeiting a letter of my Lord Oxford offering her marriage. 4.  For plotting to surprise her daughter and take her away by force, to the breach of the King’s peace, and for that purpose assembling a body of desperate fellows, whereof the consequences might have been dangerous.”