of an aching tooth, which, I remember, when I was a child, and had
little philosophy, I was glad of when it was done. For your
Lordship, I do think myself more beholding to you than to any man.
And I say, I reckon myself as a _common_ (not popular but
_common_); and as much as is lawful to be enclosed of a common, so
much your Lordship shall be sure to have.--Your Lordship's to obey
your honourable commands, more settled than ever."

It may be that, as Bacon afterwards maintained, the closing sentences of
this letter implied a significant reserve of his devotion. But during
the brilliant and stormy years of Essex's career which followed, Bacon's
relations to him continued unaltered. Essex pressed Bacon's claims
whenever a chance offered. He did his best to get Bacon a rich wife--the
young widow of Sir Christopher Hatton--but in vain. Instead of Bacon she
accepted Coke, and became famous afterwards in the great family quarrel,
in which Coke and Bacon again found themselves face to face, and which
nearly ruined Bacon before the time. Bacon worked for Essex when he was
wanted, and gave the advice which a shrewd and cautious friend would
give to a man who, by his success and increasing pride and
self-confidence, was running into serious dangers, arming against
himself deadly foes, and exposing himself to the chances of fortune.
Bacon was nervous about Essex's capacity for war, a capacity which
perhaps was not proved, even by the most brilliant exploit of the time,
the capture of Cadiz, in which Essex foreshadowed the heroic but
well-calculated audacities of Nelson and Cochrane, and showed himself as
little able as they to bear the intoxication of success, and to work in
concert with envious and unfriendly associates. At the end of the year
1596, the year in which Essex had won such reputation at Cadiz, Bacon
wrote him a letter of advice and remonstrance. It is a lively picture
of the defects and dangers of Essex's behaviour as the Queen's