And presently he says:—­

“The caryadge of the business hath made such a ster in the Towne as never was:  Nothing can fully represent it but a Commedye.”

A letter written on the same day by Sir John Finet mentions the projected marriage of Sir Edward Coke’s daughter with Sir John Villiers, who would have L2,000 a year from Buckingham, and be left heir of his lands, as he was already of his Earldom, failing the Earl’s male issue.  He adds that Sir Edward Coke went cheerily to visit the Queen, and that the common people said he would die Lord Treasurer.  Such gossip as that must have been anything but amusing to Bacon.

The Coke-Villiers engagement had now become almost, if not quite, a State affair.  Nearly three weeks later Sir Horace Vere wrote to Carleton:—­[25]

“I hear nothing so much spoken of here as that of Sir John Villiers and Sir Ed. Coke’s daughter.  My Lady Hatton doth continue stiff against yt, and yesterday I wayted upon my wife to my Lady of Northumberland’s.  She tould my wife that she gives yt out that her daughter is formmerlie contracted to an other and to such a one that will not be afeard to plead his interest if he be put to yt.”

Six days afterwards a third candidate for Frances Coke was talked about.  George Gerrard wrote to the same correspondent:—­[26]

“The Lady Hatton’s daughter to be maryed to one Cholmely a Baronet.  Of late here is by all the frendes of my Lady Hatton a Contract published of Her Daughter Frances to the Erle of Oxford which was sent him to Venice:  to which he hath returned and answer that he will come presently over, and see her fayre eyes and conclude the what he shall thinke fit for him to doe:  I have sent your Lordship Mis Frances Coke’s Love Letter to my Lord of Oxford herein concluded:  I believe you never read the like:  Thys is like to become a grate business:  for the King hath shewed himselfe much in advancing thys matter for Sir John Villiers.”

He says that Lady Elizabeth offers to give Lord Oxford “besydes her daughter ... ten and thirty hundred pound a year, which will before twenty years passe bee nigh 6000L a yeare besydes two houses well furnisht.  A Greate fortune for my Ld. yett it is doubted wheather hee will endanger the losse of the King’s favor for so fayre a woman and so fayre a fortune.”

The following is Frances Coke’s enclosed “love letter” of which Gerrard believed, as well he might, that Carleton “never read the like.”  It is evidently the work of Lady Elizabeth:—­

“I vow before God and take the Almighty to witness That I Frances Coke Yonger daughter to Sir Ed. Coke late Lord Chiefe Justice of England, doe give myselfe absolutely to Wife to Henry Ven.  Viscount Balboke, Erle of Oxenford, to whom I plight my fayth and inviolate vows, to keepe myselfe till Death us do part:  And if even I breake the least of these I pray God Damne mee body and soule in Hell fyre in the world to come:  And in thys world I humbly Beseech God the Earth may open and Swallowe mee up quicke to the Terror of all fayth breakers that remayne alive.  In witness whereof I have written all thys with my owne hand and seald it with my owne seale (a hart crowned) which I will weare till your retourne to make thys Good that I have sent you.  And for further witness I here underneath sett to my Name.