as, in all the inmost feelings and
affections of her heart, by the execution of her beloved favorite, she
was a woman of far too much spirit and energy to yield without a
struggle. She made the greatest efforts possible after his death to
banish the subject from her mind, and to recover her wonted spirits. She
went on hunting excursions and parties of pleasure. She prosecuted with
great energy her war with the Spaniards, and tried to interest herself
in the siege and defense of Continental cities. She received an
embassage from the court of France with great pomp and parade, and made
a grand progress through a part of her dominions, with a long train of
attendants, to the house of a nobleman, where she entertained the
embassador many days in magnificent state, at her own expense, with
plate and furniture brought from her own palaces for the purpose. She
even planned an interview between herself and the King of France, and
went to Dover to effect it.

But all would not do. Nothing could drive the thoughts of Essex from her
mind, or dispel the dejection with which the recollection of her love
for him, and of his unhappy fate, oppressed her spirit. A year or two
passed away, but time brought no relief. Sometimes she was fretful and
peevish, and sometimes hopelessly dejected and sad. She told the French
embassador one day that she was weary of her life, and when she
attempted to speak of Essex as the cause of her grief, she sighed
bitterly and burst into tears.

When she recovered her composure, she told the embassador that she had
always been uneasy about Essex while he lived, and, knowing his
impetuosity of spirit and his ambition, she had been afraid that he
would one day attempt something which would compromise his life, and she
had warned and entreated him not to be led into any such designs, for,
if he did so, his fate would have to be decided by the stern authority
of law, and not by her own indulgent feelings but that all her earnest
warnings had been insufficient to save him.

It was the same whenever any thing occurred which recalled thoughts of
Essex to her mind; it almost always brought tears to her eyes. When
Essex was commanding in Ireland, it will be recollected that he had, on
one occasion, come to a parley with Tyrone, the rebel leader, across the
current of a stream. An officer in his army, named Harrington, had been
with him on this occasion, and present, though at a little distance,
during the intervi