He consulted Selden about the technical legality of the
sentence. He appealed to Buckingham, who vouchsafed to appear more
placable. Once more he had recourse to Gondomar, "in that solitude of
friends, which is the base-court of adversity," as a man whom he had
"observed to have the magnanimity of his own nation and the cordiality
of ours, and I am sure the wit of both"--and who had been equally kind
to him in "both his fortunes;" and he proposed through Gondomar to
present Gorhambury to Buckingham "for nothing," as a peace-offering. But
the purchase of his liberty was to come in another way. Bacon had
reconciled himself to giving up York House; but now Buckingham would not
have it: he had found another house, he said, which suited him as well.
That is to say, he did not now choose to have York House from Bacon
himself; but he meant to have it. Accordingly, Buckingham let Bacon know
through a friend of Bacon's, Sir Edward Sackville, that the price of his
liberty to live in London was the cession of York House--not to
Buckingham, but of all men in the world, to Lionel Cranfield, the man
who had been so bitter against Bacon in the House of Commons.
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