1605.] SIR ROBERT CAREY. 139 



death of Queen Elizabeth. Returning to England, he joined 

 the fleet in 1588, and assisted in repelling the Spanish 

 Armada. The next year he won a wager of i^20oo " by 

 going on foot in twelve days to Berwick." " After this," goes 

 on the memoir, " I married a gentlewoman, Elizabeth, 

 daughter of Sir Hugh Trevanion, more for her worth than 

 her wealth ; for I had in all the world but ^100 a year out 

 of the Exchequer, as a pension, and that was but during 

 pleasure ; and I was near ;i^tooo in debt. Besides, the queen 

 was mightily displeased with me for marrying, and most of 

 my best friends, only my father, was no ways offended at it, 

 which gave me great content." The tide of fortune, which he 

 took in the spring, was the opportunity afforded him by the 

 familiar intercourse with which his kinswoman, Queen Eliza- 

 beth, condescended to treat him, of being the first to announce 

 her Majesty's decease to her successor. Having been assured 

 by his sister, Lady Scroope, that the Virgin Queen was no 

 more, he took horse between nine and ten o'clock on the 

 morning of March 23, and arrived at Doncaster the same 

 night ! On the 26th he reached Holyrood Palace about the 

 time "the king was newly gone to bed." This journey has 

 been deemed a marvellous display of horsemanship, and when 

 we consider the state of the roads at this period, and that the 

 rider sustained a great fall on the way, added to a kick from 

 the horse on his head, by which he lost much blood, " and 

 made him so weak that towards the end of the journey he 

 was forced to go at a soft pace," the equestrian feat is all 

 the more notable. The Scotch king received him, of course, 

 most graciously, and observed, " I know you have lost a near 

 kinswoman, and a mistress, but here, take my hand, I will be 

 a good master to you, and will requite this service with honour 

 and reward." But beyond making him a Gentleman of the 

 Bedchamber, and subsequently Chamberlain to Prince Henry, 

 full nineteen years elapsed before he attained the peerage ; 

 and in his memoirs he observes, " I only relied on God and 

 the king. The one never left me ; the other, shortly after his 

 coming to London, deceived my expectations, and adhered to 

 those Scotch vultures who sought my ruin." On February 5, 



