*

felt her anger; abroad she threatened kingdoms, and they felt her power. Sir Robert Cary, whose courage and personal resolution appear indisputable, trembles when he approaches her: he almost trembles when he thinks of her. He had the honour to be her relation; his father was her cousin-german. She created him† Lord Hunsdon, in the first year of her reign; but she wisely declined the least mention of affinity: such a condescension must seemingly have debased her in her throne. During her whole reign, she took as little remembrance as possible either of her father or her mother: a retrospect of that kind must have been shocking, when the innocent wife was murdered, and the tyrannical husband was her murderer.

It is certain that Queen Elizabeth could not bear the thoughts of a successor. The speeches made for her on her death-bed are

* He was knighted in the year 1591.
+ That is, Sir Robert Cary's father.

all forged. Echard, Rapin, and a long string of historians, make her say faintly, (so faintly indeed that it could not possibly be heard,)" I will that a king succeed me, "and who should that be but my nearest “kinsman the King of Scots?" A different account of this matter will be found in the following Memoirs. She was speechless, and almost expiring, when the chief counsellors of state were called into her bedchamber. As soon as they were perfectly convinced that she could not utter an articulate word, and scarce could hear or understand one, they named the King of Scots to her, a liberty they dared not to have taken if she had been able to speak. She put her hand to her head, which was probably at that time in agonizing pain. The Lords, who interpreted her signs just as they pleased, were immediately convinced, that the motion of her hand to her head, was a declaration of James VI. as her sucWhat was this but the unanimous

cessor.

interpretations of persons who were adoring the rising sun?

The Queen dead, Sir Robert Cary, with equal art and diligence, hastened to Scotland, before any other messenger could let King James know, that the crown of England was ready to be placed upon his head. The lords, and the other members of the council, were assembled, and were preparing to draw up an elaborate address to their new sovereign, at the very time when Mr Cary set out for Edinburgh. He reached Holyroodhouse on the third day after the death of Queen Elizabeth, notwithstanding a dangerous fall from his horse, which wounded and retarded him.

The King received the news with steadiness and decency. He had been prepared for it by a letter,* which Sir Robert Cary mentions to have written to him as soon as Queen Elizabeth was visibly drawing to

* See the Memoirs, p. 118.

wards her dissolution. The annalists of that period all think themselves under a necessity of representing so important a scene very minutely. Some of them, Osborne in particular, says, the King was in amaze, and from thence gives room to his own natural bitterness. Rapin makes him lift up his eyes in a private ejaculation to heaven. Others describe him as they think fit. The real truth is exactly represented by Sir Robert Cary, from whose letter King James had received sufficient information to gather in his mind a composure, which, perhaps, he seldom shewed on any other occasion.

In the mean time, the Lord Mayor and Privy Council at London were so excessively alarmed and irritated at Sir Robert Cary's watchfulness and expedition, that, in their first address to the King, they seem almost as eager to pour forth their indignation against Sir Robert Cary, as to express their duty and allegiance to their new sovereign.

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Their letter is dated thus:-" Written "in your Majesty's city of London, the "24th of March, 1603, at ten hours of the "clock at night." They begin their address in a very exalted style: "Right high, right excellent, and mighty Prince, and "our dread Sovereign Lord." Then, after most humble expressions of loyalty, and a perfect recognition of King James's right, they attack Sir Robert Cary, with all the marks of jealousy and resentment, in the following manner.

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"Farther, we have thought meet and ne

cessary to advertise your Highness, that "Sir Robert Cary, this morning, departed "from hence towards your Majesty, not

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only without the consent of us who were

present at Richmond at the time of our "late sovereign's decease, but also contrary to such commandments as we had

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power to lay upon him, and to all decen

cy, good manners, and respect, which he "owed to so many persons of our degree;

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whereby it may be, that your Majesty.