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My Lord hath ever a lofty sense of his own height, and a quick apprehenfion of injuries. You fhall take care at fuch times how you come near him with a Thwart or a Plea: measure your scant ftature by his arrogant pretenfion, or tread too close on his greatness with your unqualified foot! He hath that opinion of his reputation 'tis not safe to put a flight upon him.

And now Shrovetide hath thickened his blood, temperate though he be. And there were no wars nor no playings toward; when 'twould have taken the best o' them to cleanse his stagnant crudities and peccant humours. One telleth him the Queen was refolved to break him of his Will, and pull down his proud heart. He had, forfooth, played long enough on her; now fhe muft play awhile on him. This mended not his bruise, which before was borne with a contempt. "What I owe as a fubject," quoth he, bitterly, "I know; and what as an Earl and Marshal of England. To ferve as a fervant and a flave I know not! If I should acknowledge myself guilty, I should be injurious to the Truth and to the Authour of Truth. I have received wounds all my body over. Having received this scandal,

flatly, 'tis impiety to ferve. Cannot Princes err? Can

they not wrong their fubjects?" and more to the fame effect did he spleenfully utter. Her Grace knew of thefe things presently.

And, befide those compunctious vifitings in the matter of "B.," there were not wanting at this juncture comfortless fages who gave him a Iobation that he could ill ftomach: telling him, forfooth, how all his mischances had original in his own misdeeds: how he should reveal his fecrets; bearing himself as a finner: not in the old guife of paper and sheet, but in a moral mefs of duft and ashes.

Verily the poor Earl of Effex was in fad plight! No hero now, but a poor miserable man; unable to answer for himself, or turn out the questioners. Tormented by remorse, by the Queen, by the preachers, by the prudes, by pains in his loins, by foreness in his bones, by aches in his head, by growlings and meagrims within and without: by dolours and tremours of body and foul; by horrible imaginings, fears, tortures, and pinches a hot difeafe and cold comfort. Now the diftemperature of his fpleen gave that hue to his religion made it worse than profitless; for he more feared the Devil than loved or trusted God!

CHAPTER III.

“There's ne'er a one of you but trufts a knave

That mightily deceives you."

TIM. ATH., act v. fc. I.

HE Lord Burghley deceased, and the Earl of
Effex retired, who but Master Secretary shall

have the packing o' the cards? And lo! in

good time, befide her Grace's chair, the Captain o' the Guard again. Some have the advantage of my Lord's dumps!

Sir Robert Cecyl is the man in eye. 'Tis he knoweth the tricks o' the game! Truly he beareth not the gravity of his father, muffled as it were in a Spanish cloke; his is rather the loose 'haviour of a fantastic Frenchman, under which you shall see his wit sparkle anon.

Now the old Treafurer was o' the Peace. One for

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letting things 'bide; with a faw of "Little governing, lefs discontent." And another, "All goeth well where is no fhew of rule;" saying often and very fafely, "Let us go on as we are!" and again with a shake of 's head, "Tis the very birth o' your untimely ftirs, these interferences o' the state." "Change breedeth change: for what you alter to-day you must repair to-morrow." And, as my Lord came to his chair-days, he was more folemn on this point. But the red ferret Mafter Secretary would use, was alone enough to fhew him fit for all affairs; 'twas his natural and his hereditary vocation. Both from neceffity and by choice he was prone to statecraft-and 'twould go hard if he did not better fome enfamples and inftructions that came in his way. Like Walfingham, he must be doing. He must have his plots, his counterplots. He must have his writings and cypherings, his fecret figures and secret intelligencers. And, if he goeth a drachm or fo beyond Sir Francis' prescriptions, they say he is whilst within a scruple of fome of Leicester's receipts. Certain it is, na'th'less, he hath not the religious

ends of the one, nor the daring means o' the other: but you shall know more of him by and by.

There were two competitors for the office, and yet they

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kept good quarters between themselves; nay, they would confer one with another upon the business. And the one of them faid, that to be a Secretary in the Declination of a Monarchy was a ticklish thing; and that, for his part, he did not affect it. The other straight caught up these words; difcourfing with divers of his friends, that he (forfooth) had no reason to defire to be a Secretary in the Declination of a Monarchy. Then the first man took hold of it, finding means it should be told to the Queen; who, hearing of the Declination of a Monarchy (that old bug i' the ear), took it fo ill as she would never after hear of the other's fuit.

Sir Robert Cecyl is now in place, Sir Thomas Bodley goeth difconfolate to Oxford; there, with my Lord of Effex's better help (the Don Jerome's books to wit), founding that noble library which 'tis faid the ftudents of hereafter time shall not be learned enough to read. And of what Declination did they speak? Was it not that her Grace was yet childless, whereas the Infanta had been betrothed to the Cardinal Albert? Go to! But truly, yea! And this was Philip's laft fcheme. To what machinations might it not lead? Here was a Celebat, with his very episcopal fignet ring had concluded himself in vinculo matrimonii!

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