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 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 Arundel, 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, 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 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 judgement:-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 that 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 FROM about this period of the reign of Elizabeth, her court exhibited a scene of perpetual contest 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 interest 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 at stake, either civil or religious ;- few important points either of foreign or domestic policy. It was simply and without disguise a strife between individuals for the exclusive possession of political power and court-influence of which 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 sect. Still less would either venture to stand forth the advocate of the catholics ; although 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 courtparty for that of a conspirator and traitor. Of the title of the king of Scots both were steady supporters; and Essex first and Cecil afterwards commenced a secret correspondence with James; who flattered each in his turn with assurances of present friendship and future favor. 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 military men;- those especially of whom he observed Essex to entertain a jealousy; it is certain that martial ardor made no part of his natural composition. Essex, on the contrary, was all on fire for military glory; and at - |