" But the pardon
never came. Sir John Bennett, who had been condemned as a corrupt judge
by the same Parliament, and between whose case and Bacon's there was as
much difference, "I will not say as between black and white, but as
between black and gray," had got his full pardon, "and they say shall
sit in Parliament." Lord Suffolk had been one of Bacon's judges. "I hope
I deserve not to be the only outcast." But whether the Court did not
care, or whether, as he once suspected, there was some old enemy like
Coke, who "had a tooth against him," and was watching any favour shown
him, he died without his wish being fulfilled, "to live out of want and
to die out of ignominy."
Bacon was undoubtedly an impoverished man, and straitened in his means;
but this must be understood as in relation to the rank and position
which he still held, and the work which he wanted done for the
_Instauratio_. His will, dated a few months before his death, shows that
it would be a mistake to suppose that he was in penury. He no doubt
often wanted ready money, and might be vexed by creditors.
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