CONCERNING THE EARL OF ESSEX. 257 



sex. These speeches I cannot tell, nor I will not 

 think, that they grew any way from her majesty s 

 own speeches, whose memory I will ever honour ; if 

 they did, she is with God, and &quot; Miserum est ab illis 

 lagdi, de quibus non possis queri.&quot; But I must 

 give this testimony to my lord Cecil, that one time 

 in his house at the Savoy he dealt with me directly, 

 and said to me, &quot; Cousin, I hear it, but I believe it 

 &quot; not, that you should do some ill office to my lord 

 &quot; of Essex; for my part I am merely passive, and 

 &quot; not active in this action ; and I follow the queen, 

 &quot; and that heavily, and I lead her not ; my lord of 

 &quot; Essex is one that in nature I could consent with 

 * as well as with any one living; the queen indeed 

 &quot; is my sovereign, and I am her creature, I may not 

 &quot; lose her, and the same course I would wish you 

 &quot; to take.&quot; Whereupon I satisfied him how far I 

 was from any such mind. And as sometimes it 

 cometh to pass, that men s inclinations are opened 

 more in a toy, than in a serious matter : a little 

 before that time, being about the middle of 

 Michaelmas term, her majesty had a purpose to dine 

 at my lodge at Twicknam Park, at which time I had, 

 though I profess not to be a poet, prepared a son 

 net directly tending and alluding to draw on her ma 

 jesty s reconcilement to my lord ; which, I remember, 

 also I shewed to a great person, and one of my lord s 

 nearest friends, who commended it. This, though it 

 be, as I said, but a toy, yet it shewed plainly in what 

 spirit I proceeded ; and that 1 was ready not only 

 to do my lord good offices, but to publish and de- 

 VOL. vi. s 



