So
that when disaster came, though it might be unexpected, as death is
unexpected, it was a turn of things which ought not to take a man by
surprise. But some premonitory signs usually gave warning. There was
nothing to warn Bacon that the work which he believed he was doing so
well would be interrupted.
We look in vain for any threatenings of the storm. What the men of his
time thought and felt about Bacon it is not easy to ascertain.
Appearances are faint and contradictory; he himself, though scornful of
judges who sought to be "popular," believed that he "came in with the
favour of the general;" that he "had a little popular reputation, which
followeth me whether I will or no." No one for years had discharged the
duties of his office with greater efficiency. Scarcely a trace remains
of any suspicion, previous to the attack upon him, of the justice of his
decisions; no instance was alleged that, in fact, impure motives had
controlled the strength and lucidity of an intellect which loved to be
true and right for the mere pleasure of being so.
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