The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck | Page 4

had incurred, and, as if
to complete the joke, alleging, as an excuse, ignorance of the law on the
part of the most learned lawyer in the kingdom.
The newly married pair had not a single taste in common. The wife

loved balls, masques, hawking, and all sorts of gaiety; she delighted in
admiration and loved to be surrounded by young gallants who had
served in the wars under Sydney and Essex, and who could flatter her
with apt quotations from the verses of Spenser and Surrey. The
husband, on the contrary, detested everything in the form of fun and
frolic, loved nothing but law and money, loathed extravagance and
cared for no society, except that of middle-aged barristers and old
judges. As might be expected, the union of this singularly ill-assorted
couple was a most unhappy one. Indeed it was a case of--
"at home 'tis steadfast hate, And one eternal tempest of debate."[1]
Within a year of their marriage, that is to say in 1599, Lady Elizabeth
Hatton, as she still called herself, had a daughter. Here again Burke and
Lord Campbell are at variance. Burke says that by this marriage Coke
had two daughters, Elizabeth, who died unmarried, and Frances, our
heroine; whereas Lord Campbell says that Frances was born within a
year of their marriage and makes no mention of any Elizabeth. It is
pretty clear, from subsequent events, that, if there was an Elizabeth, she
must have died very young, and that Frances must have been born
almost as soon as was possible after the birth of her elder sister.[2]
The beginning of our heroine may make the end of our chapter. In the
next she will not be seen at all; but, as will duly appear, the events
therein recorded had a great--it might almost be said a
supreme--influence on her fortunes.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Young's Love of Fame.
[2] Most of the matter in this chapter has been taken from The Lives of
the Chief Justices of England, by John, Lord Campbell. In two volumes.
London: John Murray, 1849, Vol. I., p. 239 _seq._, Chap. VII.

CHAPTER II.

"Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure, Men love in haste, but they
detest at leisure." Don Juan, xiii., 16.
Rivals in love, rivals in law, rivals for place, Coke and Bacon, while
nominally friends, were implacable enemies, but they sought their ends
by different methods. When James I. had ascended the throne, Bacon
began at once to seek his favour; but Coke took no trouble whatever for
that purpose, and he was not even introduced to the royal presence until
several weeks after the accession. Bacon, then a K.C., held no office
during the first four years of the new reign; but his literary fame and his
skilful advocacy at the Bar excited the jealousy of Coke. On one
occasion, Coke grossly insulted him in the Court of Exchequer,
whereupon Bacon said: "Mr. Attorney, I respect you but I fear you not;
and the less you speak of your own greatness, the more I will think of
it." Coke angrily replied: "I think scorn to stand upon terms of
greatness towards you, who are less than little--less than the least."
Lord Campbell says that Sir Edward Coke's arrogance to the whole Bar,
and to all who approached him, now became almost insufferable, and
that "his demeanour was particularly offensive to his rival"--Bacon. As
to prisoners, "his brutal conduct ... brought permanent disgrace upon
himself and upon the English Bar." When Sir Walter Raleigh was being
tried for his life, but had not yet been found guilty, Coke said to him:
"Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived. I want
words sufficient to express thy viprous treasons." When Sir Everard
Digby confessed that he deserved the vilest death, but humbly begged
for mercy and some moderation of justice, Coke told him that he ought
"rather to admire the great moderation and mercy of the King, in that,
for so exorbitant a crime, no new torture answerable thereto was
devised to be inflicted upon him," and that, as to his wife and children,
he ought to desire the fulfilment of the words of the Psalm: "Let his
wife be a widow and his children vagabonds: let his posterity be
destroyed, and in the next generation let his name be quite put out."
According to Lord Campbell, Coke's "arrogance of demeanour to all
mankind is unparalleled."
Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, Coke, as Attorney-General,

had had another task well suited to his taste, that of examining the
prisoners stretched on the rack, at the Tower. Volumes of examinations
of prisoners under torture, in Coke's own handwriting, are still
preserved at the State Paper Office, which, says Campbell, "sufficiently
attest his zeal, assiduity