"
It was a chance that the late Chief-Justice and his wife, with their
armed parties, did not meet on the road, in which case "there were like
to be strange tragedies." At length the Council compelled both sides to
keep the peace, and the young lady was taken for the present out of the
hands of her raging parents. Bacon had assumed that the affair was the
result of an intrigue between Winwood and Coke, and that the Court would
take part against Coke, a man so deep in disgrace and so outrageously
violent. Supposing that he had the ear of Buckingham, he wrote
earnestly, persuading him to put an end to the business; and in the
meantime the Council ordered Coke to be brought before the Star Chamber
"for riot and force," to "be heard and sentenced as justice shall
appertain." They had not the slightest doubt that they were doing what
would please the King. A few days after they met, and then they learned
the truth.
"Coke and his friends," writes Chamberlain, "complain of hard
measure from some of the greatest at that board, and that he was
too much trampled upon with ill language.
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