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in a godly zeal, as well became him, that she should think sometime of mortality," took a text fit for the purpose, on which he treated for a time "well," "learnedly" and "respectively." "But when he had spoken awhile of some sacred and mystical numbers, as three for the Trinity, three for the heavenly Hierarchy, seven for the Sabbath and seven times seven for a Jubilee; and lastly,-seven times nine for the grand climacterical year; she, perceiving whereto it tended, began to be troubled with it. The bishop discovering that all was not well; for the pulpit stands there vis a vis to the closet; he fell to treat of some more plausible numbers, as of the number 666, making Latinus, with which he said he could prove the pope to be Antichrist; also of the fatal number of 88,so long before spoken of for a dangerous year; ...but withal interlarding it with some passages of Scripture that touch the infirmities of age.... he concluded his sermon. The queen, as the manner was, opened the window; but she was so far from giving him thanks or good countenance, that she said plainly he should have kept his arithmetic for himself. • But I see,' said she, the greatest clerks are not the wisest men ;' and so went away for the time discontented.

"The lord keeper Puckering, though reverencing the man much in his particular, yet for the present, to assuage the queen's displeasure, commanded him to keep his house for a time; which he did. But of a truth her majesty showed no ill nature in this; for within three days she was not only displeased at his restraint, but in my hearing

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rebuked a lady yet living for speaking scornfully of him and his sermon. Only to show how the good bishop was deceived in supposing she was so decayed in her limbs and senses as himself perhaps and other of that age were wont to be; she said she thanked God that neither her stomach nor strength, nor her voice for singing, nor fingering instruments, nor, lastly, her sight, was any whit decayed; and to prove the last before us all, she produced a little jewel that had an inscription of very small letters and offered it first to my lord of Worcester and then to sir James Crofts to read; and both protested bona fide that they could not; yet the queen herself did find out the poesy and made herself merry with the standers-by upon it."

A point of some importance to the peers of England was about this time brought to a final decision by the following circumstance. Sir Thomas, son and heir of sir Matthew Arundel of Wardour-castle, a young man of a courageous and enterprising disposition, going over to Germany, had been induced to engage as a volunteer in the wars of the emperor against the Turks; and in the assault of the city of Gran in Hungary, had taken with his own hand a Turkish banner. For this and other good service, Rodolph the second had been pleased to confer upon him the honor of count of the holy Roman empire; extending also, as usual, the title of `counts and countesses to all his descendants for ever. On his return to England in the year following, the question arose whether this dignity, conferred by a foreign prince without the previous consent of his own sovereign, should entitle the bearer

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to rank, precedence, or any other privilege in this country.

The peers naturally opposed a concession which tended to lessen the value of their privileges by rendering them accessible through foreign channels; and her majesty, being called upon to settle the debate, pronounced the following judgment. That the closest tie of affection subsisted between sovereigns and their subjects: that as chaste wives should fix their eyes upon their husbands alone, in like manner faithful subjects should only direct theirs towards the prince whom it had pleased God to set over them. And that she would not allow her sheep to be branded with the mark of a stranger, or be taught to follow the whistle of a foreign shepherd. And to this effect she wrote to the emperor, who by a special letter had recommended sir Thomas Arundel to her favor. The decision appears to have been reasonable and politic; and would at the time be regarded as peculiarly so in the instance of honors conferred on a catholic gentleman by a catholic prince. King James, however, created sir Thomas lord Arundel of Wardour; and he seems to have borne in common speech, the title of count *.

• Camden's Annals. Peerage, by Sir E. Brydges.

CHAPTER XXV.

1595 to 1598.

Essex and Cecil factions Expedition to Cadiz.-Robert Cecil appointed secretary-Notice of sir T. BodleyCritical situation of Essex.-Francis Bacon addresses to him a letter of advice-composes speeches for him.-Notice of Toby Matthew.-Outrages in London repressed by martial law.-Death of lord Hunsdon-of the earl of Huntingdon-of bishop Fletcher.Anecdote of bishop Vaughan.Book on the queen's touching for the evil.

FROM this period nearly of the reign of Elizabeth, her court exhibited a scene of perpetual con test between the faction of the earl of Essex and that of lord Burleigh, or rather of Robert Cecil; and so widely did the effects of this intestine division extend, that there was perhaps scarcely a single court-attendant or public functionary whose interests did not become in some mode or other involved in the debate. Yet the quarrel itself may justly be regarded as base and contemptible: no public principle was here at stake; whether religious, as in the struggles between papists and protestants which often rent the cabinet of Henry VIII.; or civil, as in those of whigs and tories by which the administrations of later times have been divided and overthrown. It was simply and without disguise a strife between individuals for the exclusive possession of that political power and court influence of which

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each might without disturbance have enjoyed a share capable of contenting an ordinary ambition.

In religion there was apparently no shade of difference between the hostile leaders; neither of them had studied with so little diligence the inclinations of the queen as to persist at this time in the patronage of the puritans; though the early impressions, certainly of Essex and probably of sir Robert Cecil also, must have been considerably in favor of this persecuted sect. Still less would either venture to stand forth the advocate of the catholics; though it was among the most daring and desperate of this body that Essex was compelled at length to seek adherents; when the total ruin of his interest with his sovereign fatally compelled him to exchange the character of head of a court party for that of a conspirator and a rebel. Of the title of the king of Scots both were steady supporters; and first Essex and afterwards Cecil maintained a secret correspondence with James; who flattered each in his turn with assurances of present friendship and future favor.

2

On one public question alone of any considerable magnitude do the rivals appear to have been at issue;-that of the prosecution of an offensive war against Spain.

The age and the wisdom of lord Burleigh alike inclined him to a pacific policy; and though Robert Cecil, for the purpose of strengthening himself and weakening his opponent, would frequently act the patron towards particular officers;-those especially of whom he observed the earl to entertain a jealousy ;-it is certain that warlike ardor made no