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"Oh, 'twas undecided! Summonfes have gone forth for

all the Lords ".

"I have not mine."

""Twill come anon; but, good my Lord, bethink you of your health. 'Tis needful you repose yourself, not enter keenly into this."

"Oh, Sir Walter ! 'tis my quality to rouse me in the day of work-you know it; and this fickness that awhile

agone plucked my waned spirit from me, now, at the bruit of business, tremblingly leaves me. Weak I am, yet health fans my blood, courses thro' my veins, colours my heart (I think), gives nerve and muscle to my arm. Effex is himself again!"

"I am right glad of it, dear my Lord, and take fome thanks I was the horn brought you the healing news."

"Thanks, good Sir Walter-thanks, and farewell!"

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Then cometh Dr. Potts, her Grace's Phyfician in ordinary (tho' 'tis not to be known the Queen's allowance had). He hath an Elixir that shall work wonders: 't hath been tried on meaner men after the use of the faculty. Pertinent yet unfeemly questions putteth this learned man to a wife woman attendendant on my Lord, examining into things you wot on. "Hmm!" faith Dr. Potts. And the wife woman had more to tell of my Lord than my Lord knew of himself; and, when all was told, Dr. Potts faid "Hmm!" and, making his leg, departed. My Lord

Keeper too, in a friendly mood, fitteth befide my Lord (now rifen), counselling fubmiffion to her Grace, and a humble bearing as befits a fubject. "He that is once wounded," quoth Effex, "muft feel smart till his hurt be cured, or that the part be senseless. But no cure I expect, her Majesty's heart being obdurate against me; and to be without sense I cannot, being made of flesh and blood."

"Dear, my Lord, should you hold your course in this long and unreasonable discontentment, you shall, I fear, find the end worse than the beginning."

"Yea! and I fee an end of all my good fortune; for I have fet an end to my defires."

"Nay, but, my good Lord, you are doing for your enemies that which they could not do for themselves, leaving your friends to fhame and contempt."

"Sayft fo, my Lord? When I was in Court I found thofe abfolute who were most my oppofites, and therefore I had rather they should triumph alone. I do leave my friends, fay you? When I was a Courtier, I could yield them no fruits of my love.”

"Still, dear my Lord, in thy country's need fail not in thy counsel, nor in thy duty to the Sovereign."

"My good Lord, I give every one of these confiderations its due right; and the more I weigh them the more I find myself justified from offending in any of them. If my country had at this time any need of my public service, her Majefty that governs the fame would not have driven me into a private kind of life. Of this I am freed, dismissed, discharged, disabled by her Majesty. Of my private duty to my country nothing can free me but death; and therefore no occafion of my performance fhall offer itself but I will meet it halfway. I owe to her Majefty the duty of an Earl and Lord Marshal of England. I have been content to do the service of a Clerk, but can never ferve her as

Countess of Leicester at Court.

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a villain or a slave!" And my Lord Ellesmere was fain to be content, for he gat no less crabbed an answer than this. Sir William Knollys, too, about whom the fray began, urged Effex to remember that there was no contesting between Sovereignty and obedience; "for," quoth the good man, "I fear the longer you perfift in this careless humour of her Majefty, the more her heart will be hardened; and I pray God your contending with her in this manner do not breed fuch a hatred in her as will never be reclaimed." Verily, the keeper of her Grace's `conscience knew less of the Queen's difpofition than did her coufin Knollys.

Still was there no Lord Deputy of Ireland.

The Countefs of Leicester, minding to redintegrate her fon to the Court, fearcheth her late husband's coffers. An Emerald fet ouchwife in a Sea of filver, is it not a fit offering to the Queen of these Isles? So, taking the gawd, and clothing herself in fables, my Lady goeth in a litter to Whitehall. Day by day fhe waiteth in the corridor. Kindly ushers leave the door ajar that her Grace may, perchance, ask who kneeleth i' th' lobby yonder. Maids of Honour whisper their Royal Lady that one, having brought

a priceless toy, only needeth leave to offer it. Lords in Waiting fay roundly the Countefs of Leicester is without, craving audience. The Queen hears not, nor marks. One forenoon, coming to a fide-door near the throne, my Lady ventureth the jewel in the Lady Stafford's hand, with this word, that her Grace's poor coufin and humble fervant might be honoured by her Majesty's acceptance of the trifle. She faw the Lady Stafford air the jewel in her Grace's eye; fhe faw a delight in the countenance of England; the fancied a Royal glance was caft towards where she knelt; fhe plainly heard the princely "Ha!" and the poor Lady fondly thought her fuit would profper. But when she raised her timorous eyelid, the door was closed, and there was no condefcending acknowledgment even of her rare Emerald. Countess of Northumberland, my Lady's daughter. The Percy asketh, "What o' the day?" Learning how matters ftand, Northumberland enters the prefence, and his Countess, flushed with paffion, scarcely making her curt obeifance, faith briefly :

Anon cometh to the Court the

"Madam, the Countefs of Leicester, my lady mother, is at door, craving instant audience! "

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