Raleigh—You have heard a strange tale of a strange man. Now he thinks, he hath matter enough to destroy me; but the king and all of you shall witness, by our deaths, which of us was the ruin of the other. I bid a poor fellow throw in the Letter at his window, written to this purpose; 'You know you have undone me, now write three lines to justify me.' In this I will die, that he hath done me wrong: Why did not he acquaint him with my dispositions?
Lord Chief-Justice—But what say you now of the Letter, and the Pension of £1500 per annum?
Raleigh—I say, that Cobham is a base, dishonourable, poor soul.
Attorney—Is he base? I return it into thy throat on his behalf: but for thee he had been a good subject.
Lord Chief-Justice—I perceive you are not so clear a man, as you have protested all this while; for you should have discovered these matters to the king.
(Note.—Here Raleigh pulled a Letter out of his pocket, which the lord Cobham had written to him, and desired my lord Cecil to read it, because he only knew his hand; the effect of it was as follows:)
Cobham's Letter of Justification to Raleigh.
'Seeing myself so near my end, for the discharge of my own conscience, and freeing myself from your blood, which else will cry vengeance against me; I protest upon my salvation I never practised with Spain by your procurement; God so comfort me in this my affliction, as you are a true subject, for any thing that I know. I will say as Daniel, Purus sum a sanguine hujus. God have mercy upon my soul, as I know no Treason by you.'
Raleigh—Now I wonder how many souls this man hath. He damns one in this Letter and another in that.
(Here was much ado: Mr. Attorney alledged, that his last Letter was politicly and cunningly urged from the lord Cobham, and that the first was simply the truth; and lest it should seem doubtful that the first Letter was drawn from my lord Cobham by promise of mercy, or hope of favour, the Lord Chief-Justice willed that the Jury might herein be satisfied. Whereupon the earl of Devonshire delivered that the same was mere voluntary, and not extracted from the lord Cobham upon any hopes or promise of Pardon.)