第20章 THE COUNTESS AND THE COZENER(6)

In denying the man who had made him great the complete confidence which their friendship demanded Rochester took the tragically wrong path on his road of destiny.But the truth is that when he quarrelled with Overbury he had already betrayed the friendship.He had already embarked on the perilous experiment of straddling between two opposed camps.It was an experiment that he, least of all men, had the adroitness to bring off.He was never in such need of Overbury's brain as when he aligned himself in secret with Overbury's enemies.

It is entirely probable that in linking up with Northampton Rochester had no mind to injure his friend.The bait was the woman he loved.Without Northampton's aid the nullity suit could not be put forward, and without the annulment there could be no marriage for him with Frances Howard.But he had no sooner joined with Northampton than the very processes against which Overbury had warned him were begun.Rochester was trapped, and with him Overbury.

For the success of the suit, in Northampton's view, Overbury knew too much.It was a view to which Rochester was readily persuaded; or it was one which he was easily frightened into accepting.From that to joining in a plot for being rid of Overbury was but a step.Grateful, perhaps, for the undoubted services that Overbury had rendered him, Rochester would be eager enough to find his quondam friend employment.If that employment happened to take Overbury out of the country so much the better.At one time the King, jealous as a woman of the friendship existing between his favourite and Overbury, had tried to shift the latter out of the way by an offer of the embassy in Paris.It was an offer Rochester thought, that he might cause to be repeated.The idea was broached to Overbury.That shrewd individual, of course, saw through the suggestion to the intention behind it, but he was at a loss for an outlet for his talents, having left Rochester's employ, and he believed without immodesty that he could do useful work as ambassador in Paris.

Overbury was offered an embassy--but in Muscovy.He had no mind to bury himself in Russia, and he refused the offer on the ground of ill-health.By doing this he walked into the trap prepared for him.Northampton had foreseen the refusal when he promoted the offer on its rearranged terms.The King, already incensed against Overbury for some hints at knowledge of facts liable to upset the Essex nullity suit, pretended indignation at the refusal.Overbury unwarily repeated it before the Privy Council.That was what Northampton wanted.The refusal was high contempt of the King's majesty.Sir Thomas Overbury was committed to the Tower.He might have talked in Paris, or have written from Muscovy.He might safely do either in the Tower--where gags and bonds were so readily at hand.

Did Rochester know of the springe set to catch Overbury? The answer to the question, whether yes or no, hardly matters.Since he was gull enough to discard the man whose brain had lifted him from a condition in which he was hardly better than the King's lap-dog, he was gull enough to be fooled by Northampton.Since he valued the friendship of that honest man so little as to consort in secret with his enemies, he was knave enough to have been party to the betrayal.Knave or fool--what does it matter? He was so much of both that, in dread of what Sir Thomas might say or do to thwart the nullity suit, he let his friend rot in the Tower for months on end, let him sicken and nearly die several times, without a move to free him.He did this to the man who had trusted him implicitly, a man that--to adapt Overbury's own words from his last poignant letter to Rochester--he had more cause to love...yea, perish for...rather than see perish.''

It is not given to every man to have that greater love which will make him lay down his life for a friend, but it is the sheer poltroon and craven who will watch a friend linger and expire in agony without lifting a finger to save him.Knave or fool--what does it matter when either is submerged in the coward?

Overbury lay in the Tower five months.The commission appointed to examine into the Essex nullity suit went into session three weeks after he was imprisoned.There happened to be one man in the commissionwho cared more to be honest than to humour the King.This was the Archbishop Abbot.The King himself had prepared the petition.It was a task that delighted his pedantry, and his petition was designed for immediate acceptance.But such was Abbot's opposition that in two or three months the commission ended with divided findings.

Meantime Overbury in the Tower had been writing letters.He had been talking to visitors.As time went on, and Rochester did nothing to bring about his enlargement, his writings and sayings became more threatening Rochester's attitude was that patience was needed.In time he would bring the King to a more clement view of Sir Thomas's offending, and he had no doubt that in the end he would be able to secure the prisoner both freedom and honourable employment.

Overbury had been consigned to the Tower in April.In June he complained of illness.Rochester wrote to him in sympathetic terms, sending him a powder that he himself had found beneficial, and made his own physician visit the prisoner.