[18] Quoted by Spedding in his _Life of Bacon_.

[19] Foard's _Life and Correspondence of Bacon_, p. 421.




CHAPTER V.

"They've always been at daggers drawing,
And one another clapper-clawing."
Butler's _Hudibras, Hud._, II, 2.


Bacon had scarcely written his first letters to Buckingham and the
King, before he had instructed Yelverton, the Attorney-General, to
institute a prosecution against Sir Edward Coke, in the Star Chamber,
for the riot at Oatlands, which he made out to have been almost an act
of war against the King, in his realm.

Her husband having carried away Frances by force, Lady Elizabeth made
an effort to recover her by a similar method. Gerrard wrote to
Carleton[20] that Lady Elizabeth, having heard that Frances was to be
taken to London, determined to meet her with an armed band and to
wrest her from Coke's power.

"The Mother she procureth a Warrant from the Counsell Table whereto
were many of the Counsellors to take her agayne from him: goes to
meete her as she shold come up. In the coach with her the Lord
Haughton, Sir E. Lechbill, Sir Rob. Rich, and others, with 3 score men