ver came. Sir John Bennett, who had been condemned as a corrupt judge
by the same Parliament, and between whose case and Bacon's there was as
much difference, "I will not say as between black and white, but as
between black and gray," had got his full pardon, "and they say shall
sit in Parliament." Lord Suffolk had been one of Bacon's judges. "I hope
I deserve not to be the only outcast." But whether the Court did not
care, or whether, as he once suspected, there was some old enemy like
Coke, who "had a tooth against him," and was watching any favour shown
him, he died without his wish being fulfilled, "to live out of want and
to die out of ignominy."

Bacon was undoubtedly an impoverished man, and straitened in his means;
but this must be understood as in relation to the rank and position
which he still held, and the work which he wanted done for the
_Instauratio_. His will, dated a few months before his death, shows that
it would be a mistake to suppose that he was in penury. He no doubt
often wanted ready money, and might be vexed by creditors. But he kept a
large household, and was able to live in comfort at Gray's Inn or at
Gorhambury. A man who speaks in his will of his "four coach geldings
and his best caroache," besides many legacies, and who proposes to found
two lectures at the universities, may have troubles about debts and be
cramped in his expenditure, but it is only relatively to his station
that he can be said to be poor. And to subordinate officers of the
Treasury who kept him out of his rights, he could still write a sharp
letter, full of his old force and edge. A few months before his death he
thus wrote to the Lord Treasurer Ley, who probably had made some
difficulty about a claim for money:

"MY LORD,--I humbly entreat your Lordship, and (if I may use the
word) advise your Lordship to make me a better answer. Your
Lordship is interested in honour, in the opinion of all that hear
how I am dealt with. If your Lordship malice me for Long's cause,
surely it was one of the justest businesses that ever was in
Chancery. I will avouch it; and how deeply I was tempted therein,
your Lordship knoweth best. Your Lordship may do well to think of
your grave as I do of mine; and to beware of hardness of heart. And
as for fair words, it is a wind by which neither your Lordship nor
any man else can sail long. Howsoever, I am the man that shall give
all due respe