448 
suit, and for its success. Those more immediately connected with the 
Government satisfied themselves that, as the Queen had provided for the 
widow and children of the rebel Karl, and by so doing had to allo- 
cate the provision from the revenues of the crown, surely she would 
befriend the present suitor, being only required to decree righteous 
judgment, without putting a finger, into the pocket of the state. The 
crown lawyers were in indignant astonishment that a settlement of such 
long standing (21st of Henry VIII.) should be assailed and trampled 
under foot by an intruder, without even the pretence of a claim. The 
rough swordsman, who would have been ready and willing to join in 
ousting the rebel Earl, lance to lance, felt choking with contempt for 
the cowardly cur who would lay his robber hand on a defenceless old 
woman. Husbands saw in this transaction their own settlements re- 
duced to waste paper; while wives and widows shuddered at the pros- 
pect of destitution, the possibility of which was visibly before them. A 
cloud dimmed the bright eyes of many an affectionate daughter, as, while 
compassionating the old Countess, her thoughts ran on, and in her terrified 
imagination she saw a fate that might befal her mother; and, under 
the same influences, the hands of sons clutched and worked on their 
daggers, with a burning wish to bury them in the villain’s heart that 
had done this foul deed. When Sir Walter had concluded his state- 
ment, he handed to Sir Edward Coke, Her Majesty’s Attorney-General, 
the Countess’s settlement of jointure, dated the 17th September, 1529, 
executed by Earl Thomas, shortly after attaining the title and estates, 
on the death of his nephew, Earl James, which occured June 18th, 1529 
(see Hamilton’s ‘‘ Calendar of State Papers relating to Ireland,” page 7. 
Lond, 1860), calling Mr. Attorney’s attention tothe endorsement on the 
deed, certifying that it had been registered in his then Majesty’s Court 
of King’s Bench in Dublin, the following term. Sir Edward, to whom 
the deed had been previously sent, and who in his chambers had made 
himself master of its contents, with due gravity opened, examined, pon- 
dered; and then, kneeling before the Queen, humbly submitted the set- 
tlement, with, it was presumed, his official opinion thereon, audible only 
to her Grace. Being motioned, he retired ; and Elizabeth, drawing herself 
up to her utmost height, the previous hush became an almost fearful 
silence ; not a silk rustled; every breath was suspended ; every eye with 
anxious earnestness rested on the Queen, and every faculty of hearing 
was stretched to its most painful expansion. The suspense was short, 
the sentence sharp. The Sovereign was insulted, the Woman outraged. 
No one possessed in a greater perfection than Elizabeth the power of 
instantly and suitably speaking, whether to the loyal outburst of a ga- 
thering at the palace gates, or receiving the ambassador of Sigismund the 
Third, King of Poland, A. D. 1597, in the sixty-fourth year of her age, 
who, she understood, came to compliment her, but whose harangué was 
toexpress his master’s displeasure, and threaten her with its consequences, 
‘‘ when,’”’ writes our old historian, Speed, ‘‘lionlike rising up, she daunted 
the malapert orator, not less with her stately port than with the tartness 
of her princely checks.” Concluding her reply, she turned to her court 
