in a person of her magnitude.' But such as take princes for other then men, shew they never saw them in true light; who, like the gods of the heathen, cannot in their actions or speeches, during life, be discerned from ordinary mortalls, but by the worship given. them; being so remote from owning any reall divinity, as with the crowne they put on greater frailties then they do devest: For, during the critical minute of the queenes strongest affection, (which was upon Essex his return from Cales,) he had importuned her for some signall token, which might assure him, that in his absence, (to which his own genius, no lesse then the respect he bare to the promotion of her honour, and obedience to her commands, did daily prompt him,) his enemies (of whom he had many about the chaire of state) should not, through their malice or subtilty, distresse him, or render him lesse or worse deserving in her esteeme; upon this, in a

■ Of a broken heart, namely, for the loss of a lover.

great deale of familiarity, she presented a ring to him; which, after she had by oathes indued with a power of freeing him from any danger or distresse his future miscarriage, her anger, or enemies malice could cast him into, she gave it him, with a promise, that at the first sight of it all this and more if possible should be granted. After his commitment to the Tower, he sent this jewell to her majesty, by the then Countesse of Notingham, whom Sir Robert Cecill kept from delivering it. This made the queene think her selfe scorned, a treason against her honour, and therefore not unlikely to be voted by the pride of so great a lady, more capitall then that pretended against her person, which power doth rarely suffer to scape unpunished: besides, he had been tempted through passion to say, or his enemies to devise, that she now doted, and owned a mind no lesse crookedthen her body; a high blasphemy against such a divine beauty, as flatterers, the idolizers of princes, had enshrined here in. And

from these his misfortunes, led on by the weaknesse jealousy and age had bred in her, his maligners took advantage, so as his head was off before discretion, love, or pity had leasure to dictate. The ring might be miscarried, and the former relation false; but the lady of Notingham coming to her death-bed, and finding, by the daily sorrow the queene expressed for the losse of Essex, her selfe a principall agent in his destruction, could not be at rest till she discovered all, and humbly implored mercy from God, and forgivenesse from her earthly soveraigne: who did not only refuse to give it, but having shook her as she lay in her bed, sent her, accompanied with most fearefull curses, to a higher tribunall. Not long after the queenes weaknesse did appeare mortall, hastened by the wishes of many, that could not in reason expect pardon for a fault they found she had so severely punished in her selfe, as to take comfort in nothing after :'

The following striking picture of Elizabeth's reremorse and agony of mind, is extracted from the Me

་

But upon all occasions of signing pardons, would upbraid the movers for them with

moirs of Sir Robert Carey, afterwards Earl of Monmouth.

"When I came to court, I found the queen ill-disposed, and she kept her inner lodging; yet she, hearing of my arrival, sent for me. I found her in one of her withdrawing chambers, sitting low upon her cushions. She called me to her; I kissed her hand, and told her, it was my chiefest happiness to see her in fafety and in health, which I wished might long continue. She took me by the hand, and wrung it hard, and said, No, Robin, I am not well,' and then discoursed with me of her indisposition, and that her heart had been sad and heavy for ten or twelve days; and in her discourse, she fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs. I was grieved at the first to see her in this plight; for, in all my lifetime before, I never knew her fetch a sigh, but when the Queen of Scots was beheaded. Then, [1587,] upon my knowledge, she shed many tears and sighs, manifesting her innocence, that she never gave consent to the death of that queen.

"I used the best words I could to persuade her from this melancholy humour; but I found by her it was too deep rooted in her heart, and hardly to be removed. This was upon a Saturday night; and she gave command, that the great closet should be prepared for her to go to chapel the next morning. The next day, all things being in readiness, we long expected her coming. After eleven o'clock, one of the grooms came out, and bade make ready for the private closet, she would

the hasty anticipation of that brave mans end, not to be expiated in relation to the nations losse by any future indeavour, much lesse so unseasonable an uncharitablenesse to a dying lady.

24. After Essex was thus laid by, the totall management of state-affaires fell to Sir Robert Cecill in right of wisdome, who, free from competition, became bold enough to informe the queene, that too many yeares had beene already lapsed, and the peoples quiet hazarded by her delay, in not fixing upon one certaine successour: Nothing remaining wanting, but her concession, to free the nation from a civil warre, in declaring the King of Scots her law full heire,` who, besides an immediate right, had the

not go to the great. There we stayed long for her coming; but at the last she had cushions laid for her in the privy chamber, hard by the closet door, and there she heard service.

"From that day forwards, she grew worse and worse. She remained upon her cushions four days and nights at the least. All about her could not persuade her either to take any sustenance, or go to bed."