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black nuns, and over the door of which he had placed an inscrip- 
tion in Latin, which has been thus translated :— 
Their house no more the veil-clad virgins grace, 
Yet faith unspotted still maintains her place, 
For sacred Hymen’s rites like honours claim, 
And his bright star illumes the vestal flame. 
The only interval of his career after the death of his first wife 
during which he could have built this house, which was clearly 
erected in connection with his marriage, was subsequent to his 
return from Brussels. But this period of comparative leisure did 
not last long, and he was fixed upon by the Queen to go in the 
same capacity to Spain. His salary is stated in the State Papers, 
September 3oth, 1561, to be five marcs a day and incidental 
expenses ; but salaries were little more than nominal in those days. 
The fees constituted the substantial remuneration, or the grant of 
a manor or barony at the termination of the service. Many, how- 
ever, were the disappointments in the days of Queen Bess, and 
one rather notable fact impresses one at this time. On the 24th 
August of this year, he grants to the Queen forty-eight messuages 
and tenements and also certain rents in Saint Bees and Hensingham; 
and on the 16th October, twenty-one tenements in Sandwith are 
made over to Her Majesty in consideration of the sum of £320. 
These were never redeemed, and ultimately were bought by the 
Governors of Saint Bees School; but of this more anon. 
Chaloner, at the outset, met with the most discourteous treatment 
in Spain. All his boxes and luggage were searched in the most 
offensive way, and he complained bitterly, but his Queen at that 
time chose to take no notice of the insult. Throughout his 
residence at the Court of Madrid he was unwearied in his com- 
plaints of the climate, and he declared in winter he lived in a 
stove, and in summer in a barn. “Spain,” he says in another 
communication, “rather pain; food and lodging about Madrid are 
scarcely bearable, and elsewhere past bearing,” and the Duke of 
Alva was the only person in whom he found wisdom and courteous 
usage. History has set down Alva amongst the wretches who have 
disgraced humanity, and it is right that he should have the benefit 
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