sired him to say nothing to Lord Clarendon, nor to any one else, till she should come to him, which she hoped to get leave to do in a day or two. Lord Clarendon came to him upon his message, but he turned the matter off, as if he only wished to explain something he had said before the council. Lord Clarendon was satisfied that he had nothing farther to communicate. * After this he sent another message to his wife, that he was much calmer, especially when he found how she took his condition to heart, without seeming concerned for herself. The condition of his friend, Lord Russell, seems to have pressed heavily on his mind. He sent to the Earl of Bedford to say, he was more concerned for his son's condition than even Lord Bedford himself. And Lord Russell, when he looked towards Lord Essex's window, had observed him retire imme diately into his room. On the morning appointed for Lord Russell's trial, his servant Bommeny (as he asserted), thinking he staid longer in his room than ordinary, looked through the key-hole, and there saw him lying dead. He said that, upon breaking open the door,, he found his master with his throat cut, quite dead. At the time, it was universally supposed that Lord Essex was the author * Burnet. of his own death; but this opinion was afterwards rendered doubtful, by the deposition of two children of thirteen years of age, totally unknown to each other, who declared that they saw a bloody razor thrown out of the window of Lord Essex's chamber. Braddon, who gave currency to these reports, was tried and convicted as a spreader of false news. After the Revolution, a Committee of the House of Lords, consisting of Lord Bedford, Lord Devonshire, Lord Delamere, and Lord Monmouth, was named, to enquire into the death of Lord Essex. They examined above sixty witnesses; but Lord Devonshire, Lord Delamere, and Lord Monmouth, being obliged to leave London on public business, the investigation was suspended, and Parliament being soon afterwards dissolved, it was never resumed. Some time before this, however, Lady Essex had called a meeting of her relations, at which Lord Bedford, Lord Devonshire, and Bishop Burnet were present; at which she declared she believed Lord Essex had killed himself, and desired the business might be let fall.* The depositions taken before the Lords are not to be found; it would be idle, therefore, at the present time, to pretend to give any opinion on the subject; and I should say *Diary of Henry Earl of Clarendon. no more on it, were it not that I have been assured by the present Earl of Essex, that Lord Onslow, then a Lord of the Treasury, told him, when a boy, that he had seen the entry of a grant of money to Bommeny in the books of the Treasury. The following circumstance corroborates strongly this testimony. At Russell Farm, near Cassiobury, there exists a copy of Lord Essex's letters, published in 1770, prefixed to which is an account of his life. In the margin of the page where he is stated to have been committed to the Tower, is the following note in the hand-writing of the Countess of Essex, grandmother of the present Earl. "Bommeny had a pension from the Treasury by the King's order till the day of his death, as Mr. Grenville told us appeared upon the Treasury books; Lady Carlisle, his daughter, likewise said that the family were of the same opinion, but his widow did not care to stir about it on account of her son." The Lady Essex who wrote this note was of the Russell Family: by the word "us" she probably means herself and a daughter who lived with her. A search was made at my request, but without success, into some of the Treasury books: there are others, however, in such confusion that it would be very difficult to examine them. The opinion that Lord Essex was murdered, undoubtedly receives great support from the fact attested by Mr. Grenville and Lord Onslow. But it would have been satisfactory to have ascertained beyond a doubt, that Bommeny did not receive a pension from the Treasury before the death of Lord Essex. There is another circumstance mentioned by Braddon, which, if true, would go far to settle the question. He says that the sentinel who guarded the outer door, affirmed in his first examination, that he did not admit any one in the morning to Lord Essex's apartment, but that, in his subsequent examination, he allowed that he had admitted two men. Braddon attributes the stop put to the enquiry, to the regard which was paid to a minister of that day (probably meaning Lord Halifax), who had afterwards been one of the chief actors in the Revolution; and to the respect required by the feelings of Queen Mary and Princess Anne. The interval between the imprisonment of Lord Russell, and his trial, were anxiously spent by Lady Russell in preparations for his defence. The two following notes are the best evidence of the nature of her employment; and the last will be valuable to those who set a price upon any memorial tending to show how well firmness may be combined with affection. Lady Russell to Lord Russell. "I had, at coming home, an account that your trial, as to your appearing, is not till tomorrow. Others are tried this day, and your indictment presented, I suppose. I am going to your counsel, when you shall have a further account from Lady Russell to Lord Russell. Endorsed-" To ask his leave to be at his trial." "Your friends, believing I can do you some service at your trial, I am extreme willing to try; my resolution will hold out-pray let yours. But it may be the Court will not let me; however, do you let me try. I think, however, to meet you at Richardson's, and then resolve: your brother Ned will be with me, and sister Marget." |