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J. L. DENMAN, 65, FENCHURCH STREET, LONDON, E.C.

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GOOD FOR NOTHING; OR, ALL DOWN HILL. BY THE AUTHOR OF

'DIGBY GRAND,' 'THE INTERPRETER,' ETC. ETC.

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ARNOLD ON TRANSLATING HOMER

THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES, ACCORDING TO PHRENOLOGY,
EXAMINED. BY ALEXANDER BAIN

685

689

693

696

700

703

715

IDA CONWAY.—A TALE. BY J. M. C. CHAPTERS XIX. AND XX............. 730

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AN ANGLER'S IDYLL; ADDRESSED FROM CAMBRIDGE TO AN OLD FISHER
FRIEND AT LYNMOUTH, NORTH DEVON

781

CHRONICLE OF CURRENT HISTORY

783

INDEX

791

LONDON:

PARKER, SON, AND BOURN, WEST STRAND.

MDCCCLXI

FRASER'S MAGAZINE FOR MAY

CONTAINS

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE CONDUCT OF BUSINESS IN PARLIA

MENT.

GOOD FOR NOTHING; OR, ALL DOWN HILL. BY THE AUTHOR OF 'DIGBY GRAND,' 'The InterPRETER,' ETC. ETC.

CHAPTER XVII.-'AY DE MI!'

CHAPTER XVIII.-'BON VOYAGE.'

CHAPTER XIX.-'WHY DO YOU GO TO THE OPERA?'

CHAPTER XX.-THE FALSE GOD.

THE TURKISH DIFFICULTY.

CONCERNING THINGS SLOWLY LEARNT. BY A. K. H. B.

THE MAY EAST WINDS.

THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE CROWD.

POLAND: ITS STATE AND PROSPECTS,

BACK AGAIN.

IDA CONWAY.—A TALE. BY J. M. C. CHAPTERS XVII, AND XVIII.

SOLDIERS AND THEIR SCIENCE. BY J. E. ADDISON.

CHRONICLE OF CURRENT HISTORY.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Correspondents are desired to observe that all Communications must be addressed direct to the Editor.

Rejected Contributions cannot be returned.

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

JUNE, 1861.

QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD ROBERT DUDLEY, AND
AMY ROBSART.

A STORY FROM THE ARCHIVES OF SIMANCAS.

LE
ET the reader imagine a collec-
tion of many thousand dis-
patches, each equal in average
length to the letters of a Times
correspondent, equal in style and
manner to the best of such letters,
and written by men who had means
of knowing the inmost secrets of
courts and cabinets, and he will be
able to conceive the materials for
English history which lie for the
present unexamined in the Archives
of Simancas. When newspapers
had no existence, when the mails
were the bags of government
couriers, and private communica-
tions were rare and scanty, the
sovereigns of Europe were exclu-
sively dependent on their own
representatives for the information
on which they had to act; and in
the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies the business of diplomacy
was conducted by the shrewdest
and keenest men whose services
could be secured.

In a department which was universally excellent, the ministers of the Court of Spain were signally distinguished; and among the many remarkable persons who, during those centuries, were sent by the Spanish monarchs into England, none perhaps deserved better of their own country and worse of ours, than Alvarez de Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, ambassador of Philip II. in London during the first five years of the reign of Elizabeth. A bishop, De Quadra was; but not, as he justly boasted, 'such a sheep as English bishops were.' Devoted to his

VOL. LXIII. NO. CCCLXXVIII.

Church, and ready to serve its interests by all means, fair and foul, he was perfectly well aware of the stuff of which the world was made, in which that Church was militant. Thoroughly understanding and master of the means by which political success was to be gained in it, he was courageous and plain-spoken, when plain speaking would gain his end; and he handled falsehood like a master when intrigue was a safer road to it. He was as free from 'devout imaginations' as Talleyrand; and, above all things, in his secret communications with his own sovereign, he was true. He would lie with any man, when a lie would serve his turn; but he knew as well as his master that to lie with advantage it was necessary to know what was the truth. He never spoke or acted, for good or evil, except with his feet firmly standing on the hard solid ground of reality, and he treated his master with necessary sincerity.

From the correspondence of this person with Philip II., the Count de Feria, and Cardinal Granville, I have gathered the story which Í am about to tell. It is not a common tale of scandal, gathered from the streets, or from the back rooms in palaces. It is found gradually growing through a long series of letters, and the circumstances of it were intertwined with the gravest political events of the time.

For the first two years of her reign, Elizabeth sat poised upon a shaking throne, in an equilibrium created only by two opposite inte

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