CHAP VIII tion at Elizabeth's Court; where the curtain being once 1564 June more lifted, Lord Robert Dudley is still seen at his old game, professing at home an increasing attachment to the Reformation, abroad maintaining an agent at the Vatican, and declaring himself to Philip the most devoted servant of Rome. De Silva at the English DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. London, June 27. 'I arrived in London the 18th of this month. The day Court. following, the Queen sent an officer of the household to welcome me in her name. I had previously received a number of kind messages from the Lord Robert, and in returning him my thanks I had asked him to arrange my audience with her Majesty. She promised to see me on Thursday the 22nd. The court was at Richmond: I went up the river in a barge and landed near the palace. Sir Henry Dudley and a relative of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton met me at the stairs and brought me to the Council Room. There Lord Darnley, Lady Margaret Lennox's son, came to me from the Queen and escorted me into her presence. ་ 'As I entered some one was playing on a harpsichord. Her Majesty rose, advanced three or four steps to meet me, and then giving me her hand said in Italian she did not know in what language to address me. I replied in Latin, and after a few words I gave her your Majesty's letter. She took it, and after first handing it to Cecil to open, she read it through. She then spoke to me in Latin also-with easy elegance expressing the pleasure which she felt at my arrival. Her court, she said, was incomplete without the presence of a minister from your Majesty; and for herself she was uneasy without hearing from time to time 1564 June of your Majesty's welfare. Her "ill friends" had told her CHAP VIII that your Majesty would never send an ambassador to her again. She was delighted to find they were mistaken. Her obligations to your Majesty were deep and many, and she would show me in her treatment of myself that she had not forgotten them. She spoke 'After a few questions about your Majesty she then took me aside and inquired about the Prince, how his health was, and what his character was. at length about this; and then falling back into Italian, which she speaks remarkably well, she began again to talk of your Majesty. Your Majesty, she said, had known her when she was in trouble and sorrow. She was much altered since that time, and altered she would have me to understand much for the better.' Some unimportant conversation followed and de Silva took his leave, Lord Darnley again waiting upon him to his barge. A postscript was added in cipher : 'An intimate friend of Lord Robert Dudley has just been with me. I understand from him that Lord Robert was on bad terms with Cecil before the late book on the succession appeared, and that now the enmity between them is deeper than ever, because he takes Cecil to have been the author of it. The Queen is furious, but there are so many accomplices in the business that she has been obliged to drop the prosecution. This gentleman, although he desires me to be careful how I mention Lord Robert's name, yet entreats me at the same time to lose no opportunity of urging the Queen to severe measures. 1 Lord Robert hoped that if the Queen of Scots was recognized as heir to the throne after Elizabeth and her children, the country would waive 1564 June CHAP VIII If Cecil can once be dismissed from the Council, the Catholic religion and your Majesty's interests in England will all be the better for it. Lord Robert who is your Majesty's most faithful friend believes that this book may be the knife with which to cut his throat. If the Queen can be prevailed upon to part with him much good will follow, and I am strongly advised to use Lord Robert's assistance. Lord Robert professes Rome. 'I have said that I shall always welcome Lord Robert's help, that your Majesty, I was well aware, would wish me to do so, and that in the present matter I will do what I can; but I mean to move cautiously and to see my way before I step.' DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. July 2. 'Lord Robert is more pressing than ever in offering The gentleman of whom devotion to his services to your Majesty. I spoke tells me that Lord of the Queen; and that if he succeeds, the Catholic religion will be restored. Again cautioning me to be secret he informed me that Lord Robert was in communication with the Pope about it, and had agents residing continually at the Papal Court. He spoke of his intentions in the warmest terms, especially with reference to the restoration of the truth. 'The interests at stake are so weighty, there are so many pretensions liable to be affected, and such a multitude of considerations on all sides which may not be overlooked, that I must entreat your Majesty to direct me what to do and say. I have not as yet exchanged a word upon the subject with any one except the person I speak of. I suspect the French have been trying to make use of Lord Robert. His father, people tell me, had large French connexions.' DE SILVA TO PHILIP II. CHAP VIII 1564 July 10. Richmond. 'I have been at Court at Richmond again. Queen was in the garden with the ladies when I arrived, a party at and she bade the Grand Chamberlain bring me to her. She received me with the most pointed kindness. She had been so anxious to see me, she said, that she could not help giving me the trouble of coming. 'She took me aside and led me into a gallery, where she kept me for an hour, talking the whole time of your Majesty, and alluding often to her embarrassments when she first came to the throne. I need not weary your Majesty with repeating her words; but she spoke with unaffected sincerity, and seemed annoyed when we were interrupted by supper. 'The meal was attended with the usual ceremonies. Nothing could be more handsome than the entertainment. She made the band play the "Battle of Pavia," and declared it was the music that she liked best in the world. 'After supper she had more conversation with me; and as it was then late, I thought it time to take my leave: but the Queen said I must not think of going; there was a play to be acted which I must see. She must retire to her room for a few minutes, she said; but she would leave me in the hands of Lord Robert. The Lord Robert snatched the opportunity of her absence to speak of his obligations to your Majesty, and to assure me that he was your most devoted servant. She returned almost immediately, and we adjourned to the theatre. The piece which was performed was a comedy, of which I should have understood but little had not the Queen herself been my interpreter. The plot as usual turned on marriage. While it was going on the Queen recurred I CHAP VIII to the Prince of Spain, and asked about his stature. 1564 replied that his Highness was full grown. She was silent a while, and then said— July 6.66 Every one seems to disdain me. I understand you think of marrying him to the Queen of Scots ?" "His ""Do not believe it, your Majesty," I said. Highness has been so ill for years past with quartan ague and other disorders that his marriage with any one has been out of the question. Because he is better now the world is full of idle stories about him. Subjects are never weary of talking of their princes." "That is true," she answered. "It was reported a few days since in London that the King my brother intended to offer him to me." The play was followed by a masque. A number of people in black and white, which the Queen told me were her colours, came in and danced. One of them afterwards stepped forward and recited a sonnet in her praise; and so the spectacle ended. We adjourned to a saloon where a long table was laid out with preserved fruits and sweetmeats. It was two in the morning before I started to return to London. The Queen at the same time stepped into her barge and went down the river to Westminster.' It is possible that the communications from Lord Robert to the Spanish ambassador were part of a deliberate plot to lead Philip astray after a will-o'-the-wisp; to amuse him with hopes of recovering Elizabeth to the Church, while she was laughing in her sleeve at his credulity. If Lord Robert was too poor a creature to play such a part successfully, it is possible that he too was Elizabeth's dupe. Or again it may have been that Elizabeth was insincere in her offer of Lord Robert to the Queen of Scots, while |