...be an ingenuous and full confession, and asked him if he would stand to it. He answered, "My Lords> it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your Lordships, be merciful to a broken reed." The next step was to deprive Bacon of the Seal. The commissioners found him sick,...

...ascertain whether he had really written and meant to abide by such an avowal. ' My lords,' he said, ' it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your lordships to be mercifnl to a broken reed.' An uninterrupted succession of apologists have notwithstanding contended...

...subscribed to the same ; and their lordships being returned, reported, that the lord chancellor said, " he merciful unto a broken reed." On the vM of May, the seals having been sequestered, the House resolved...

...sent a committee to him to ask if indeed it might be believed. " My lords," said the unhappy Bacon, " it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed ! " The King was merciful ; and indeed no one seemed anxious to humiliate...

...therefore appointed to wait upon him, to whose inquiries he exclaimed, with great emotion, " My Lords, it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your Lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." After such reiterated confessions, by a man fully acquainted with...

...was, to be sure that he had really signed the confession. " My Lords," said the brokenhearted man, " it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your Lordships to be merciful to a broken reed." He was sentenced to pay a fine of £ 40,000, to be confined in the...