appy in the embraces
of the Earl of Somerset, she could not forbear the persecution of him;
she procured that Sir Thomas should be nominated by the King to go
ambassador to Russia, a destination she knew would displease him, it
being then no better than a kind of honourable grave; she likewise
excited Earl Somerset to seem again his friend, and to advise him
strongly to refuse the embassy, and at the fame time insinuate, that
if he should, it would only be lying a few weeks in the Tower, which to
a man well provided in all the necessaries, as well as comforts of
Life, had no great terror in it. This expedient Sir Thomas embraced,
and absolutely refused to go abroad; upon which, on the twenty-first
of April 1613, he was sent prisoner to the Tower, and put under the
care of Sir Gervis Yelvis, then lord lieutenant. The Countess being so
far successful, began now to conceive great hopes of compleating her
scheme of assassination, and drew over the Earl of Somerset her
husband, to her party, and he who a few years before, had obtained
the honour of knighthood for Overbury, was now so enraged against
him, that he coincided in taking measures to murder his friend. Sir
Gervis Yelvis, who obtained the lieutenancy by Somerset's interest,
was a creature devoted to his pleasure. He was a needy man, totally
destitute of any principles of honour, and was easily prevailed upon
to forward a scheme for destroying poor Overbury by poison.
Accordingly they consulted with one Mrs. Turner, the first inventer
(says Winstanley of that horrid garb of yellow ruffs and cuffs, and in
which garb he was afterwards hanged) who having acquaintance with
one James Franklin, a man who it seems was admirably fitted to be
a Cut-throat, agreed with him to provide that which would not kill
presently, but cause one to languish away by degrees. The lieutenant
being engaged in the conspiracy, admits one Weston, Mrs. Turner's
man, who under pretence of waiting on Sir Thomas, was to do the
horrid deed. The plot being thus formed, and success promising
so fair, Franklin buys various poisons, White Arsenick,
Mercury-Sublimate, Cantharides, Red-Mercury, with three or four
other deadly ingredients, which he delivered to Weston, with
instructions how to use them; who put them into his broth and meat,
increasing and diminishing their strength according as he saw him
affected; besides these, the Countess sent him by way of present,
poisoned tarts and jellies: but Overb