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Attempts at Poisoning.

11

Lieutenant of the Tower, who was in the interest of the enemies of the prisoner; the sub-keeper was also changed, and his place was supplied by one Richard Weston-a creature of the Countess's, and formerly servant to Dr. Turner, the husband of the Countess's confidante.

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On the morning of the 9th of May, Weston received a message from Mrs. Turner, desiring him to come immediately to Whitehall. There he saw the Countess, who told him that a water' would be sent to him, which he was to give to his prisoner. At the same time she significantly told him not to drink of it himself. That same evening Weston's son William, an apprentice to the Countess's haberdasher, brought him a curious little phial, only two inches long, filled with a liquor of a bluish colour when held in the hand, but of a sickly greenish yellow when held up to the light. He was then just going to give Sir Thomas his supper. On his way he met Sir Gervas, of whom he asked, 'whether he should now give him that he had or no?' The Lieutenant, neither affecting ignorance nor surprise, induced Weston to explain himself; then, having obtained the information he desired, he terrified Weston with God's eternal judgment, and did so strike him, as with his hands holden up he blessed the time that ever he did know him,' with other words to that effect.'* Sir Gervas, touched with Weston's remorse, held out his hand to him, spoke to him kindly-even drank to him; but, strange to say, still left him to take charge of Overbury. The next day Weston broke the little flask to pieces, and threw away the deadly liquor which it contained.

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To the surprise of the Countess the victim still lived. She sent for Weston, and questioned him. He maintained that he had given the poison. She put into his hand 201., and promised him more when Overbury should be dead. As soon as he was gone she set about devising new schemes.

Soon after the Countess sent a servant to the Tower with a present to Overbury of some tarts and wine. The following mysterious letter, addressed to Helwysse, accompanied them.

I

'I was bid to bid you say that these tarts came not from me. was bid to tell you that you must take heed of the tarts, because there be LETTERS in them; and, therefore, neither give your wife nor children of them, but of the wine you may, for there are not letters in it; Sir Thomas Monson will come from Court this day, and then we shall have other news.'

The Lieutenant, true to his timorous policy, did not give the

See Helwysse's Letter to the King, in the State Paper Office, published by Mr. Amos, Trial, &c., p. 186.

tarts to Overbury: he carefully put them by, and the black and livid appearance they assumed in a few days made it too manifest what those deadly letters were.

After this, other tarts of the same kind were given to Weston by Mrs. Turner, accompanied by a verbal caveat; Weston promised to give them, and every time he saw Mrs. Turner, asseverated that he had done so. In truth, however, he delivered them regularly to Helwysse, who as regularly caused them to be thrown away.

Sir Thomas Overbury's imprisonment, although only for contempt, was so strict, that neither his father, mother, nor his most intimate friends were permitted to see him; neither were his own servants allowed to remain and wait on him, although one of them offered to be shut up with him. Overbury was not even permitted to view his friends from the window, lest he should communicate with them. Once, indeed, his sister's husband, Sir John Lidcote, had access to him, but the interview was jealously watched by the Lieutenant.

Overbury being thus prevented from opposing her wishes, the Countess instituted against her husband, the Earl of Essex, one of the most disgraceful suits which ever appeared in the legal annals of any country. The King sided with the Countess, and wrote a dissertation in her behalf; Abbott, the good Archbishop of Canterbury, was the only one of the ecclesiastical judges who had the courage to oppose cancelling the marriage. The Countess gained her suit, and was pronounced* free to marry whom she would.

In the meantime, Overbury, whose health was declining, wrote repeatedly from his prison in the Tower to Rochester, requesting him to obtain his liberty, and requesting also that his friends might be allowed to see him. Rochester continued to correspond with him, giving him hopes that he might be set at liberty. The father of Overbury, hearing of his son's illness, petitioned the King that his son might have medical advice. By James's orders, Rochester wrote to Dr. Craig, the King's physician, saying that it was his Majesty's pleasure that he should attend Overbury as long as he required his services. Whether Dr. Craig visited Overbury or not does not appear. It is, however, certain that other physicians of the King, namely, Dr. Micham and Sir Théodore de Mayerne,+ attended the prisoner. The latter visited him for a considerable time, for his prescriptions, which were subsequently handed to Sir Edward Coke by Pawle de

In June, 1613.

+ Mayerne had been physician to Henry the Fourth of France, and, after his death, was invited to England by James, who appointed him one of his physicians.

Death of Overbury in the Tower.

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Lobell, the apothecary employed by Mayerne, filled twenty-eight leaves or pieces of paper. Lobell was a Frenchman, who resided in Lime-street, near the Tower. His attendance commenced previous to June 25th, and continued probably up to the decease of Overbury, since he saw the body after death, and testified as to its emaciated and ulcerated state. Towards the end of August, the doctors in attendance and the Lieutenant of the Tower signed a bulletin in which they stated that their patient was 'past all recovery.' Was this really so, or was it only a stratagem to prepare men's minds for the death which was intended so soon to follow? If Overbury was so near his end, why, being only confined for contempt, were not his family permitted to see him?

On the 14th of September, the apothecary, Lobell, was in attendance, and on this occasion a medicament was administered to him by the apothecary's man. Overbury was very ill all night, so much so that Weston remained with him, and removed him to another bed during the night. His servant, Lawrence Davies, is also represented to have passed the night in the room. Early in the morning, Weston went out, as he says, to procure some beer to assuage the burning thirst of the invalid, and when he returned at seven o'clock he found Overbury dead. Whether Davies was with him or not, does not appear.

The welcome intelligence of the death of Overbury was immediately communicated by Helwysse to Northampton. The manner in which it was received may be guessed by the following letter from the Earl :

'NOBLE LIEUTENANT,

'If the knave's body be foul, bury it presently. I'll stand between you and harm ; but if it will abide the view, send for Lidcote, and let him see it, to satisfy the damned crew. When you come to me, bring me this letter again yourself with you, or else burn it. 'NORTHAMPTON.'*

So anxious was Northampton for the speedy interment of the body, that, at twelve o'clock the same day, he despatched the following letter, without signature, by another messenger:

'WORTHY MR. LIEUTENANT,

'Let me entreat you to call Lidcote and three or four friends, if so many come to view the body, if they have not already done it; and so soon as it is viewed, without staying the coming of a messenger from the Court, in any case see him interred in the body of the chapel within the Tower instantly.

* British Museum, Cotton MSS., Titus, c. vii. for 107 back.-See Amos, p. 173.

'If they have viewed, then bury it by-and-by; for it is time, considering the humours of the damned crew, that only desire means to move pity and raise scandall. Let no man's instance cause you to make stay in any case, and bring me these letters when I next see you. 'Fail not a jot herein, as you love y' friends; nor after Lidcote and his friends have viewed, stay one minute, but let the priest be ready; and if Lidcote be not there, send for him speedily, pretending that the body will not tarry. "Y" ever.

'In poste haste at 12.'*

These letters, we should imagine, were intended to be strictly confidential; a third, written very shortly after, was probably designed to be shown. The tone of the following artful letter is quite different from that of the preceding

'WORTHY MR. LIEUTENANT,

'My Lord of Rochester, desiring to do the last honour to his decd friend, requires me to desire you to deliver the body of Sir T. Overbury to any friend of his that desires it, to do him honour at his funeral. Herein my Lord declares the constancy of his affection to the dead, and the meaning that he had in my knowledge to have given his strongest straine at this time of the King's being at Tibbald's, for his delivery. I fear no impediment to this honourable desire of my Lord's but the unsweetness of the body, because it was reputed that he had some issues, and, in that case, the keeping of him above must needs give more offence than it can do honour. My fear is, also, that the body is already buried upon that cause whereof I write; which being so, it is too late to set out solemnity. "This, with my kindest commendations, I ende, and reste 'Your affectionate and assured friend,

'H. NORTHAMPTON.

'P.S. You see my Lord's earnest desire, with my concurring care, that all respect be had to him that may be for the credit of his memory. But yet I wish withal, that you do very discreetly inform yourself whether this grace hath been afforded formerly to close prisoners, or whether you may grant my request in this case, who speak out of the sense of my Lord's affection, though I be a counsellor, without offence or prejudice. For I would be loath to draw either you or myself into censure, now I have well thought of the matter, though it be a work of charity.'

In confirmation of the view we have taken of this letter, there is found on the back of it, in the Lieutenant's writing, a statement of his recollections connected with the circumstances which followed the death of Overbury: such as his having written to Northampton for instructions; Weston's account of the diseased.

* Cotton MSS. Titus, B. vii. fol. 464, published by Amos, p. 173.

The Countess of Essex marries Carr.

15

state of the body; the order to send for Lidcote and bury the body speedily. Helwysse states that, in spite of this order and the state of the body, he had kept it until three or four o'clock in the afternoon; that Lidcote came on the following day. Hence he could not have seen the body. It is more than probable that Lidcote expressed his displeasure at the hasty interment, for Helwysse adds, that he could not get him to bestow a coffin or a winding-sheet upon him. Helwysse says that he himself bestowed a coffin; 'others say the body was covered with a sheet, and so buried with the haste that was, as Mr. Amos significantly observes, always found to be necessary in the case of those who died in the Tower.* A hasty burial frequently concealed a violent death.

Previous to the interment an inquest had been held in the Tower before Robert Bright, one of the coroners for Middlesex, and a packed jury of six wardens of the Tower and six others, but no verdict was recorded.+

Lidcote apparently was satisfied with what he was told respecting Overbury's death, for he made no stir about it; and the circumstances attending it were hushed up, and for a time buried within the massive walls of the Tower, which had been the scene of so many foul and secret murders.

Shortly after the death of Overbury, Rochester wrote to the mother of Overbury a letter, in which he blamed himself as the cause of her son's death, since it was on his account that Sir Thomas had fallen into disgrace. 'I wish,' he writes, 'I could redeem him with any ransom; I wish I knew how to repay his faith, and give all you who in him have lost so much satis'faction. You shall find how well I loved your son by my effects, being more willing to do all of you good for his sake than whilst he lived. I will shortly devise with you concerning your son in France, whose expenses I will defray, and ease you of that burthen, and at his return take further time to provide for him; but I think it best that he remain till this tempest is 'settled.'

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The apothecary's boy who administered the medicament was quietly sent abroad by Lobell, to prevent disclosures.

Three months passed away; the death of Overbury was forgotten in the preparations then making at the Court for the celebration of fêtes, which were to rival those that in the spring had graced the marriage of the Elector of Bohemia with the Princess Elizabeth. On St. Stephen's day (the 26th of December), 1613, a magnificent ceremony took place in the Royal Overbury was only thirty-two years of age when he died. Amos, p. 171.

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