To cling to
him could do not good, but would only bring the Queen's anger
upon himself also. And yet he had written: "It is friendship
when a man can say to himself, I love this man without respect of
utility. . . . I make him a portion of my own wishes."
He wrote that as a young man, later he saw nothing in friendship
beyond use.
The trial of Essex must have been a brilliant scene. The Earl
himself, young, fair of face, splendidly clad, stood at the bar.
He showed no fear, his bearing was as proud and bold as ever,
"but whether his courage were borrowed and put on for the time or
natural, it were hard to judge."* The Lord Treasurer, the Lord
High Steward, too were there and twenty-five peers, nine earls,
and sixteen barons to try the case. Among the learned counsel
sat Bacon, a disappointed man of forty. There was nothing to
single him out from his fellows save that he was the Earl's
friend, and as such might be looked upon to do his best to save
him.
*John Chamberlain.
As the trial went on, however, Bacon spoke, not to save, but to
condemn.
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