66 "Time shall unfold what pleated cunning hides." SHAKESPEARE, Lear, A& I., Sc. 1. Again I do entreate that you be so diligent that my great labour for Truth shall not lie in embryo longer, but come forth, when th' time shall be accomplisht unto th' day. Study to ayd, not to put a straw in th' way. Under much of th' outer huske is th' kernell, worth th' search of many a yeare, utterly lost to th' world till it have beene brought forth."-FRANCIS BACON, Biliteral Cipher, p. 219. "Come, let us make love deathless, thou and I, HERBERT TRENCH. "But it was to them a laughing matter, and being a new thing unto them, they feared that their great name would be lessened if they should now again begin to learn, and acknowledge their many years' errors, to which they were accustomed, and wherewith they had gained them enough."-Fama Fraternitatis R. C., 1616. "So it comes to pass that overprizing what they have already acquired, they make no further search."-DR. SIMON PATRICK, The Parable of the Pilgrim, 1687. CHAPTER I HISTORICAL "Let not my work be lost, for 'tis of importance to many besides yourselfe, and no historie may be complete without it. Indeed the whole national record must bee chang'd by a revelation of such a kinde, but if I have not your aide, no eie but my decypherer's, when I am resting from my labours, shall read that which I have prepar'd with such great paines for posterity."FRANCIS BACON, Biliteral Cipher, p. 219. "Nor should you expect anything exquisite in it. We are sorry it is not so rich in worth or beauty as it might have been made, had we not, to prevent its discovery and to provide for our own future safety, buried it deep beneath a mass of falsehood. We have shaped forth a faithful narrative of facts, large in bulk and extent, and pleasing in variety, rather than a treasure-house of eloquence or poesy. On the other hand, we have made it, by the luminous brilliancy of the matter, so suitable to its dignity, that we will vouch that it shall not either be laughed at or made sport of. On the contrary, future generations and posterity, by the assistance of our work, will have a faithful, true and strange account of the mysteries of the Kingdom."-FRANCIS BACON, Word Cipher, p. 22. T HE Historical fact of primary interest to humanity, and which throws all else into the shadow, is the statement that Queen Elizabeth was the mother of two children,1 and that the elder of 1 “Whatever were the Queen's relations with Dudley before his these was the writer of the Shakespeare plays. The younger, known to the world as Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the arrogant and petted favourite, becoming aware of his princely origin, strove to obtain his rights by rebellion, with the result we know. “I am named in th' world," says Bacon, "not what my stile should bee according to birth, nor what it rightfullie should be, according to our law, which giveth to the first-borne o' th' royall house (if this first-borne be a sonne o' th' ruling prince, and borne in true and right wedlocke), th' title of th' Prince o' Wales. My name is Tidder, yet men speak of me as Bacon, even those that knowe of my royal mother, and her lawfull marriage with th' Earle o' Leicester, a suitable time prior to my birth." 1 ""Tis said: The curse that was not deserv'd never will come.' Some may finde it true, but to me a cause wife's death, they became closer after. It was reported that she was formally betrothed to him and that she had secretly married him in Lord Pembroke's house, and that she was a mother already-January, 1560-1. "In 1562 the reports that Elizabeth had children by Dudley were revived. One, Robert Brooks of Devizes, was sent to prison for publishing the slander, and seven years later a man named Marsham, of Norwich, was punished for the same offence." -Dict. of Nat. Biog., vol. xvi., p. 114. 1 "Biliteral Cipher," p. 334. |