enough to bring these forward in such a
way as to leave on the mind of his hearers the impression that these
were things proved against Raleigh. To this practice, which deserved the
very phrases which Coke used against the prisoner's dealings, 'devilish
and machiavelian policy,' Raleigh protested again and again that he
ought not to be subjected, until Coke lost his temper once more, and
cried, 'I _thou_ thee, thou traitor, and I will prove thee the rankest
traitor in all England.' A sort of hubbub now ensued, and the Lord Chief
Justice again interfered to silence Raleigh, with a poor show of
impartiality.

Coke, however, had well nigh exhausted the slender stock of evidence
with which he had started. For a few minutes longer he tried by sheer
bluster to conceal the poverty of the case, and last of all he handed
one of Cobham's confessions to the Clerk of the Crown to be read in
court. It entered into no particulars, which Cobham said their lordships
must not expect from him, for he was so confounded that he had lost his
memory, but it vaguely asserted that he would never have entered into
'these courses' but for Raleigh's instigation. The reading being over,
Coke at last sat down. Raleigh began to address the jury, very quietly
at first. He pointed out that this solitary accusation, by the most
wavering of mortals, uttered in a moment of anger, was absolutely all
the evidence that could be brought against him. He admitted that he
suspected Cobham of secret communications with Count Aremberg, but he
declared that he knew no details, and that whatever he discovered, Cecil
also was privy to. He had hitherto spoken softly; he now suddenly raised
his voice, and electrified the court by turning upon Sir Edward Coke,
and pouring forth the eloquent and indignant protest which must now be
given in his own words.

Master Attorney, whether to favour or to disable my Lord Cobham
you speak as you will of him, yet he is not such a babe as you
make him. He hath dispositions of such violence, which his best
friends could never temper. But it is very strange that I, at
this time, should be thought to plot with the Lord Cobham,
knowing him a man that hath neither love nor following; and,
myself, at this time having resigned a place of my best command
in an office I had in Cornwall. I was not so bare of sense but I
saw that, if ever this State was strong, it was now that we have
the Kingdom of Sc