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or friendship, to cheer and support her in her lonely passage to the tomb.

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Sir William Brown, the deputy-governor of Flushing, who came over this summer to explain the state of affairs in the Low Countries, gives a very interesting narrative of his interview with her majesty in the month of August 1601. On Sunday morning, after prayers, he was introduced by Cecil to the queen, as she walked in the gardens, at Mr. William Clarke's.' "I had no sooner kissed her sacred hand," says he, "but she presently made me stand up. She spoke somewhat loud, saying, Come hither, Brown,' and pronounced, that she held me for an old faithful servant of hers, and said, I must give content to Brown;' and then, the train following her, she said, 'Stand-stand back! Will you not let us speak, but you will be hearers?' She then walked a turn or two, protesting her gracious opinion of myself; Before God, Brown,' said she, they do me wrong, that will make so honest a servant jealous, lest I should mistrust him ;' and though her words alone had been more than sufficient to content so mean a servant as myself, yet it pleased her to swear unto me, that she had as good affiance in my loyalty, as in any man's that served her."

Brown notices, that he delivered sir Robert Sidney's letter, kneeling, to her majesty, on his first presentation, but that she did not read it, till he was gone; and, indeed, appeared perfectly familiar with the subject. "Having walked a turn or two," says he, "she called for a stool, which was set under a tree, and I began to kneel, but she would not suffer me; and, after two or three denials, when I made to kneel, she was pleased to say, 'that she would not speak with me, unless I stood up.' Whereupon, I stood up, and after having repeated her gracious opinion of me, she discoursed of many things, and particularly of the distaste she had of the States army returning. It seems that sir Francis Vere hath lain all the fault upon count Maurice. I said, 'that count Maurice did protest, that this journey was never of his plotting.'

"Tush, Brown!' saith she, 'I know more than thou dost. When I heard,' continued the queen, that they were at first with their army, as high as Nemigham, I knew no good would be done, but Maurice would serve his own turn, and would, in the end, turn to the Grave (Landgrave.) 1 Sidney Papers, vol. ii.

I looked that they should have come down nearer to Ostend, or Flanders—that might have startled the enemy, and that they promised me, or else I would not have let them have so many men, to the discontentment of my subjects, as I know, and which, but for the love they bear me, they would not so well digest; and now, forsooth, Maurice is come from his weapon to his spade, for at that he is one of the best in Christendom."1

Brown, though he had some things to urge in explanation of the line of policy adopted by the cautious Maurice, was too practised a courtier to oppose the royal orator, after this burst of lion-like disdain at what she deemed the selfishness of her ally. "It was not befitting for me to answer anything for him," says he, "when I saw her majesty so informed already. The truth must appear to her in time, and from a better hand than myself. Then she complained of the French king failing in his promise to support the enterprise of her army. Brown told her majesty, "that it was considered that the French king rather had marvelled at their boldness in going so far, than offered any hope of co-operation with them.'

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"Tush, Brown!" interrupted the queen, who appeared better informed on this point than her foreign ministers suspected, "do I not know that Buceval was written to, again and again, to move the army to go that way, and that he would not help them?" "If that were so, said Brown, "your majesty may think it was but a French promise." Then, after discussing various subjects with the queen, he mentioned to her that the Zealanders put their sole hope in her majesty, trusting that her powerful influence would induce the States' General to render them the succour they required. "Alas, poor Zealanders !" exclaimed Elizabeth, "I know that they love me with all their hearts." Brown told her majesty "that they prayed for her." Elizabeth received this information with peculiar unction, and delivered a speech on the occasion, which, of course, was spoken that it might be duly reported to those pious Dutch patriots, to provoke them to further manifestations of their good will. "Yea, Brown," said she, "I know it well enough; and I will tell thee one thing. Faith, here is a church of that countrymen in London; I

1 Sidney Papers.

protest, next after the Divine Providence that governs all my well-doing, I attribute much of the happiness that befalls me to be given of God, by those men's effectual and zealous prayers, who, I know, pray for me with that fervency, as none of my servants can do more.'

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After a long talk, Mr. Secretary (sir Robert Cecil) came, and the discourse turned on military affairs. Cecil paid her majesty the homage of his knee, in the most deferential manner, while she was pleased to converse on this business; and she, turning to Brown, said to him, "Dost see that little fellow that kneels there? It hath been told you that he hath been an enemy to soldiers. On my faith, Brown, he is the best friend the soldiers have." Cecil replied with his usual tact, "that it was from her majesty alone all the soldiers' good flowed ;" and with this compliment, sir William Brown closes his detail of this characteristic scene.

The same month queen Elizabeth, understanding that Henry IV. of France was at Calais, made a progress to Dover, in the hope of tempting him to cross the channel to pay his compliments to her in person. She had previously dispatched a letter to him by lord Edmonds, full of friendly expressions and offers of service; and when she reached Dover, she sent sir Robert Sidney with another, intreating the king to allow her the satisfaction of a personal interview, as she greatly desired to see him. Her pride would have been flattered by the visit of a king of France, and such a king as the hero of Navarre, and she omitted nothing that she imagined might induce him to come. Henry remembering, perhaps, that the queen of Sheba came to Solomon, not Solomon to her, forfeited his reputation for always yielding due homage to the ladies, by excusing himself, under the unanswerable plea of impossibility, from coming to Dover, and courteously invited his good sister to visit him in France. If Elizabeth had been nineteen instead of sixty-nine, he would probably have acted more gallantly.

Elizabeth, in reply, wrote a very courteous letter, explaining the obstacles that prevented her from coming to France, and lamented "the unhappiness of princes, who were slaves to forms and fettered by caution;" and she repeated, "that her regret at not being able to see him was so much the greater, as she had something of the last im

portance to communicate to him, which she neither durst commit to paper nor trust to any person but himself, and that she was then on the point of quitting Dover for London." Though Henry ought to have had a pretty accurate idea of Elizabeth's habitual diplomacy, his curiosity was so greatly excited by these mysterious hints, that he sent for his faithful minister, Rosny,' and said to him, "I have just now received letters from my good sister of England, whom you admire so greatly. They are fuller of civilities than ever. See if you will have more success than I have had in discovering her meaning." The sage premier of France confessed that he was not less puzzled than his sovereign, by the mysterious language of the female majesty of England, and both agreed, that it must be something of very great consequence, which prompted such a communication; and it was agreed that Rosny should embark the following morning for Dover, and make an incognito trip to London, for the purpose of penetrating this important state secret. The moment he landed at Dover, he was met and recognised by a whole bevy of the state officers and members of queen Elizabeth's cabinet, who were evidently on the look out for his master. Sidney, who had seen him at Calais only a few days before, welcomed him with an embrace, and asked him "if he were not come to see the queen?"

The artful diplomatist told him "he was not, and begged him not to mention his arrival to her majesty, as he had brought no credentials, having merely come over to make a private visit to London, without any idea of seeing her." The English gentlemen smiled, and told him "that he would not be suffered to pass so, for the guard-ship had doubtless given a signal of his arrival, and he might shortly expect to see a messenger from the queen, who had, only three days ago, spoken publicly of him in very obliging terms." Rosny, though nothing was further from his meaning, begged them to keep the secret, pretending "that he was only going to take a slight refreshment, and then proceed on his journey;" and, saying this, left them abruptly. "After this fine piece of acting," he says, "I had but just entered my apartment, and spoken a few words to my people, when I felt somebody embrace me from behind, who told me

Afterwards the celebrated Duc de Sully.

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'that he arrested me as a prisoner to the queen.' This was the captain of her guards, whose embrace I returned, and replied, smiling, that I should esteem such imprisonment an honour.' His orders were to conduct me directly to the queen. I therefore followed him.”

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"It is well, monsieur de Rosny,' said this princess to me, as soon as I appeared; and do you break my fences thus, and pass on, without coming to see me? I am greatly surprised at it, for I thought you bore me more affection than any of my servants, and I am persuaded that I have given you no cause to change these sentiments."" After this agreeable beginning, she entered into a long, political conversation, drawing him on one side, that she might speak with the greater freedom, but instead of having anything to tell, she made it her business to endeavour to draw from the French minister all she could of his sovereign's plans, with regard to the house of Austria. Ireland was then threatened with an invasion from Spain, which rendered her desirous of causing a diversion, by attacking that portion of the dominions of Philip III., that was under the jurisdiction of the archduke. Rosny explained to her, that the finances of Henry would not allow him to launch into aggressive warfare. She rejoined, "that there was a vital necessity for keeping the power of the house of Austria within due bounds, in which they ought both to unite, but that the Low Countries ought to form an independent republic.

"Neither the whole, nor any part of those states, need be coveted," she said, "by either herself, the king of France, or the king of Scotland, who would," she added, "become, one day, king of Great Britain." This speech is the more remarkable, as it contains, not only very sound sense, but a quiet, dignified, and positive recognition of James VI. of Scotland by Elizabeth, as her rightful successor, and it is strange that this should have escaped the attention of all our historians; Sully himself records it without comment. Her allusion to the increased importance of her realm, when blended with the sister country, is worthy of a patriotic sovereign. Elizabeth, at that moment, rose superior to all paltry jealousies, for she proudly felt the lasting benefit which her celibacy had conferred on her subjects, 'Sully's Memoirs, vol. ii. p.373.

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