his secretary to deliver her majesty's present and message to the ambassador, and to inquire, if he had had any news from France, for the satisfaction of the queen, whom he assured him " he had never seen in better health or spirits than at present; and that she would not go out in her coach any more to the chase, but on a fine large horse."

6

"I replied," continues our diplomat, "that I thanked the earl very much, for the continuation of his good-will towards me; and that I entreated him to kiss her majesty's hands, very humbly in my name, and to assist me in thanking her properly for her greeting, and beautiful present," and added, that these fine apricots shewed very well that she had fair and good plants in her realm, where I wished the grafts from France might in time produce fruits even more perfect."" This last compliment was intended as an allusion to the marriage, which was then in negotiation between the queen and the duke of Anjou. Some delay had occurrea in the arrival of communications from France, at which it should seem her majesty was impatient; for, on the 5th of August, she sent a gentleman to the ambassador, with the present of a fine stag, which she had shot with her own hand, with an arblast, or cross-bow, and inquired again "if he had any news from France?"

6

"The earl of Leicester," writes monsieur de la Mothe, "has sent to me, that the queen, his mistress, having seen this great stag, as she was hunting at Oatlands, and wishing to kill it, that she might send me the venison of her forests, as well as the fruits of her gardens, that I might be the better able to judge of the goodness of her land, called hastily for an arblast, and with one blow from the bolt, she had herself broken its leg, and brought it down; and her old lord chamberlain had finished killing it.' I was at the time assured, that the said lady persevered in her good intentions towards monsieur; and often talked of the agreeable pleasures and exercises they should take together, in hunting and visiting the beautiful places in her kingdom; but that she considers, that your majesties are very tardy in your replies, and thinks it strange that she has not yet had the portrait of monsieur in large, and in colours." That which had been sent about a month before, was evidently only a sketch in black chalks. Two portraits from the

1 Depèches de la Mothe Fenelon, vol. iv. p. 200.

skilful hand of Janet were afterwards sent-one to shew the face, the other the figure of the prince; but the original, though Elizabeth had so frequently intimated how agreeable a visit from him would be, remained obstinately on the other side the water, whence reports were perpetually transmitted by Walsingham, sometimes of his projected marriage with the queen of Scots, and at others with her venerable rival the princess of Portugal.

The detection of the share the French ambassador had taken in the Norfolk plot, had the effect of suspending the negotiations, for the alliance between Elizabeth and the duke of Anjou, and though Burleigh, in one of his oracular letters to Walsingham, at this crisis, writes:-" Truly, the more matters are discovered, the more necessary it is seen that her majesty should marry"-all attempts to agitate the matter proved abortive. The reluctance of the proposed bridegroom was, in fact, insurmountable, though the farce was carried on a few weeks longer.

When Anjou told his ribald companion, the mareschal Tavannes, "that the earl of Leicester had endeavoured to forward his marriage with the queen of England," the other profanely rejoined, "My lord Robert would marry you to his friend; make him marry Chateauneuf, who is yours."! Leicester having importuned for a French lady of rank as a bride.

Elizabeth honoured her kinsman, lord Hunsdon, with a visit in September, 1571, at his mansion, Hunsdon House. A curious contemporary painting, in the possession of the earl of Oxford, is supposed to commemorate this event, and the manner of the royal approach. The queen is seated in a canopied chair of state, carried by six gentlemen, preceded by knights of the garter, and followed by a procession of the most distinguished ladies of the household-they are all portraits. Henry lord Hunsdon carries the sword of state before her majesty. Among the knights of the garter, Leicester walks nearest to the queen; then my lord-treasurer, Burleigh, with his white staff, and Charles Howard the admiral, afterwards earl of Nottingham; followed by Sussex, Russell, and Clinton, each adorned with a profile portrait of her majesty, pendant from a ribbon. The ladies are all richly jewelled, and Elizabeth herself, according to custom,

1 The countess Chateauneuf was the mistress of the duke of Anjou.

outdoes the queen of diamonds in her bravery. She is represented of a comely and majestic presence.

The picture is conjectured to have been painted by Mark Gerrard, Elizabeth's court painter, and it has been splendidly engraved by Vertue, among his historic prints; a posthumous portrait of Mary Boleyn, lord Hunsdon's mother, and aunt to the queen, appears in the back-ground, in a grave dark dress; lady Hunsdon is in white, and nearest to the queen. Lady Knollys, his sister, and the young Catherine Carey, his daughter, who afterwards married her cousin, Charles Howard, the lord admiral, are also among the dramatis personæ of this remarkable picture.

We find, by Stowe, that the queen was carried to St. Paul's, occasionally, after this fashion, which reminds us of the procession of a pagan goddess surrounded by her priests and worshippers, or the ovation of a Roman conqueror, rather than the transit of a Christian queen in civilized times. The semi-barbarous display of pomp and homage suited the theatrical taste of Elizabeth, who inherited the pride and vanity of both her parents, and understood little of the delicacy and reserve of an English gentlewoman, which, even in the days of Alfred, deterred royal females from exhibiting themselves to the vulgar in a manner unbefitting the modesty of their sex.

368

ELIZABETH,

SECOND QUEEN REGNANT OF ENGLAND & IRELAND.

CHAPTER VII.

Elizabeth discovers Norfolk's implication in Ridolfi's plot-Scene with the French ambassador-Her anger-Her observation touching her weddingAnjou breaks his faith with her-His younger brother offered to her in his place-Elizabeth's vexation-Her rejoinder to the Spanish ambassadorHer reluctance to Norfolk's execution-Signs his death-warrant-Revokes it-Her angry letter to the queen of Scots-Dangerous illness of Elizabeth -Her marriage treaty with Alençon-Her Maundy-Alençon's portrait sent to her-Execution of Norfolk-Parliament urges her to execute the queen of Scots-Elizabeth's noble reply-Signs a treaty with FranceElizabeth's fêtes, &c., and Sunday amusements-Dissimulation-Flattered by La Mothe Fenelon-Alençon's letter-Elizabeth objects to his youth, ugliness, &c.-Deliberates on curing his defects-Elizabeth's praise of Catherine de Medicis-Entry into Warwick-Receives the French ambassadors there—Their flattery, and marriage discussions-Warwick fired by the fireworks at a festival in Elizabeth's honour-Her reception of the French ambassador after the massacre of St. Bartholomew-Her project for betraying the queen of Scots-Her parsimony-She continues secretly her marriage treaty with Alençon-She has the small pox-Her recovery -Facetious observations-Accepts the office of sponsor to Charles IX.'s infant-Scene in the privy-council-Love letter from Alençon to Elizabeth—Asks permission to visit her—She demurs-Court gossip-Favours the earl of Oxford-Interferes in his quarrel with sir Philip Sidney-Her progress in Kent, &c.-Her visit to Canterbury-Feasted by the archbishop of Canterbury-Treats with the French envoy-Dinner at St. Austin's Hall-Her visit to Sandwich-Entertained by mayor's wife, &c. -Surveys the dock-yards at Chatham.

WHILE Elizabeth was deluding herself into something like an imaginary passion for the youthful heir-presumptive of France, her kinsman, the duke of Norfok, had resumed his interdicted correspondence with the captive queen of Scots, and the luckless lovers had suffered themselves to be entangled by the intriguing Florentine banker, Ridolfi, in the meshes of a political plot, of the full tendency of which they

appear not to have been aware.' Its ostensible object was the liberation of Mary, her marriage with Norfolk, and her restoration to her rightful throne. As this could not be effected without foreign aid, Mary and Norfolk empowered Ridolfi to apply to the duke of Alva.

Alva by no means approved of his client, whom he regarded as a chattering visionary, half madman, half knave, but as it was the policy of his sovereign to cause all the annoyance in his power to the queen of England, he promised to assist the confederates with ten thousand men in the following spring. Letters to that effect were found on the person of Baily, the queen of Scots' courier from France, and a watchful eye was kept on all parties. Meantime, Fenelon, by Mary's desire, furnished two thousand crowns in gold for the relief of her faithful friends in Scotland. These the duke of Norfolk undertook to forward, and his servant, Higford, gave the bag to a person of the name of Brown, telling him it was silver for the duke's private use, and bidding him deliver it to Banister, his lord's steward. Brown, judging by the weight of the bag that it contained gold, carried it to the council. It was opened, and letters in cipher discovered, which betrayed the whole business. Norfolk was arrested, and the letters from the queen of Scots, which Higford had been ordered to burn, but had treacherously preserved, were found under the mats of his chamber door, and the key of the cipher in which they were written under the tiles of the house.

2

There is something peculiarly revolting in the fact, that Elizabeth should have been so callous to all the tender sympathies of the female character, as to enjoin the application of torture to extort a confession, against their unfortunate lord, from Barker and Banister, two of the duke of Norfolk's servants.

She says:

"If they shall not seem to you to confess plainly their knowledge, then we warrant you to cause them both, or either of them, to be brought to the rack; and first to move them with fear thereof, to deal plainly in their answers; and

1 The details of this foolish business may be seen in Camden, Lingard, and other historians of Elizabeth's reign. The intelligent research of my lamented friend, the late Mr. Howard of Corby, among the records of Simanças, has brought to light many curious particulars connected with the intrigues of Ridolfi, which are printed in the last supplementary appendix of the Howard Memorials, for private circulation.

2 Camden. Despatches of Fenelon. Lingard.