The point was then raised about Captain Keymis, who had been rigorously examined. He was well known to be friendly to Ralegh. He proved, however, a faithful friend. Cobham said that Keymis came to him with a letter torn. But of this nothing came; Keymis had been too staunch to add anything to the truth, and the matter was dropped. More testimony of Cobham was then read concerning letters to Arabella, and again Ralegh insisted on Cobham's presence. "Let me speak for my life," cried Ralegh; "it can be no hurt for him to be brought; he dares not accuse me. If you grant me not this favour, I am strangely used. Campian was not denied to have his accusers face to face."
Popham. "Since he must needs have justice, the acquitting of his old friend may move him to speak otherwise than the truth."
Ralegh. "If I had been the infuser of all these treasons into him—you Gentlemen of the Jury, mark this, he said I have been the cause of all his miseries, and the destruction of his house, and that all evil hath happened unto him by my wicked counsel—if this be true, whom hath he cause to accuse and to be revenged on, but on me? And I know him to be as revengeful as any man on earth."
Coke. "He is a party, and may not come; the law is against it."
Ralegh. "It is a toy to tell me of law; I defy such law, I stand on the fact."
Cecil. "I am afraid my often speaking (who am inferior to my lords here present) will make the world think I delight to hear myself talk. My affection to you, Sir Walter Ralegh, was not extinguished but slaked in regard of your deserts. You know the law of the realm (to which your mind doth not contest) that my Lord Cobham cannot be brought." The King's Attorney, Sir Edward Coke, took up the thread of his much-interrupted discourse, and this time he brought forward a witness, one Dyer, a pilot. Dyer was accordingly sworn, and delivered this evidence: "I came to a merchant's house in Lisbon to see a boy that I had there, there came a gentleman into the house, and enquiring what countryman I was, I said, an Englishman. Whereupon he asked me if the King was crowned. And I answered, no, but that I hoped he should be so shortly. Nay, saith he, he shall never be crowned; for Don Ralegh and Don Cobham will cut his throat ere that day come."
Ralegh naturally asked, "What infer you from this?" And the King's Attorney answered him, "That your treason hath wings." Ralegh had a convincing reply, "Why did they name the Duke of Buckingham with Jack Straw's treason, and the Duke of York with Jack Cade, but that it was to countenance his treason?"
The King's Attorney was worsted in this point; and accordingly Serjeant Philips came to his assistance by repeating, as usual, the gist of Cobham's accusations. To which Ralegh answered, "If truth be constant and constancy be in truth, why hath he forsworn that that he hath said? You have not proved any one thing against me by direct proofs, but all by circumstances."
Coke was becoming more and more impatient. "Have you done?" he cried. "The King must have the last."
Ralegh. "Nay, Master Attorney, he which speaketh for his life must speak last. False repetitions and mistakings must not mar my cause."