The subordinate officers of the law
affected little scruple concerning bribery. Pieces of plate and bags of
money were sent in presents to the king's counsel, to influence their
conduct, and poured forth, says a contemporary writer, like billets of
wood upon their floors, without even the decency of concealment.
In such times, it was not over uncharitable to suppose that the
statesman, practised in courts of law, and a powerful member of a
triumphant cabal, might find and use means of advantage over his less
skilful and less favoured adversary; and if it had been supposed that
Sir William Ashton's conscience had been too delicate to profit by these
advantages, it was believed that his ambition and desire of extending
his wealth and consequence found as strong a stimulus in the
exhortations of his lady as the daring aim of Macbeth in the days of
yore.
Lady Ashton was of a family more distinguished than that of her lord, an
advantage which she did not fail to use to the uttermost, in maintaining
and extending her husband's influence over others, and, unless she
was greatly belied, her own over him.
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