reciprocal Love pass'd betwixt them, that it was questionable, whether
the Viscount were more in favour with King _James_, or Sir _Thomas
Overbury_ in the favour of the Viscount? But what estate on earth is so
firm, that is not changeable, or what friendship is so constant, that
is not dissolvable? Who would imagine this Viscount should be
instrumental to his death, who had done him so faithful service, and to
whom he had embosom'd his most secret thoughts? Yet so it was, for Sir
_Thomas_, out of an unfeigned affection which he bare to the Viscount,
diswaded him from a motion of a Marriage which was propounded betwixt
him and the Lady _Francis Howard_, who was lately divorced from the
Earl of _Essex_, as a Match neither for his credit here, nor comfort
hereafter. This Counsel, though it proceeded from an unfeigned love in
Sir _Thomas_, yet where Beauty commands, all discretion being
sequestred, created in the Viscount a hatred towards him; and in the
Countess the fury of a woman, a desire of revenge, who perswaded the
Viscount, _That it was not possible that ever she should endure those
injuries, or hope for any prosperity so long as he lived; That she
wondred how he could be so familiar, so much affected to his man_
Overbury; _that without him he could do nothing, as it were making him
his right hand, seeing he being newly grown into the Kings favour, and
depending wholly upon his greatness, must expect to be clouded if not
ruined, when his servant that knew his secrets should come to
preferment._ The Viscount, apt enough of his own inclination to
revenge, being thus further exasperated by the Countess, they joyntly
resolve upon his death, and soon a fit opportunity came to their hands.
He being by King _James_ (and as it is thought by the Viscount's
Counsel) nominated to be sent Embassador to the Emperor of _Russia_,
was by the said Viscount, whom he especially trusted, persuaded to
decline the employment, as no better than an _honourable Grave_; Better
lie some days in the _Tower_, than more months in a worse Prison; a