Raleghana Volume 7, No. 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1618 Excerpt: ...to it is included in any other portion of the petition ("S. P., James I, Dom.," XCVI1I, 63). How "the test of probability" was to tell against Ealegh is not clear. That the idea of attacking the fleet had been in Ealegh's mind for several months is based on surmise alone. Had it been correct it would assuredly have been embodied in the charge list of the Attorney-General, whereas only one occasion was notified" in it, viz. the period after the failure of the mine was. known. The reference to the speech on the scaffold was hardly fair to be urged against him. The few hours between his being sentenced and the execution were fully occupied, the wonder being that he accomplished so much during that brief period.2 He had prepared a final testamentary note in case he was not permitted to speak. "He was left," states Spedding, "to make his last speech, under circumstances 1 "Camd. Misc.," 10. Cf. Wilson's letter to the King, 21 September, in "S. P., James I, Dom.," XCIX, 58. 2 Cf. Stebbing, 372-4; Edwards, I, 694-7. which would have ensured an indulgent hearing for the most unpopular criminal" (369), but there was good reason to believe he would probably have been prevented from speaking while on the scaffold. Thus a letter from Chamberlain to Carleton of 7 November, 1618, contains this paragraph: "They had no thancks that suffered him to talk so long on the scaffold, but the fault was laide on the sheriffes and there yt rests."1 There is no substantial reason to believe that the suggestion, proposition, or whatever it may be termed, was anything more than idle fleet-gossip, although Gardiner declares "there was strong evidence that after his failure he had attempted to induce his capt...