take counsel with men who understand justice and
the laws, as I am deliberating to do: I will choose half-a-dozen of the
most able I can find in my kingdom for consultation, and after having
their advice, I will then discover to you my will.' On this she
dismissed them in great anger.

"By this, sire, your majesty may perceive that this queen is every day
trying new inventions to escape from this passage (that is, on fixing
her marriage, or the succession). She thinks that the Duke of Norfolk is
principally the cause of this insisting,[91] which one person and the
other stand to; and is so angried against him, that, if she can find any
decent pretext to arrest him, I think she will not fail to do it; and he
himself, as I understand, has already very little doubt of this.[92]
The duke told the earl of Northumberland, that the queen remained
steadfast to her own opinion, and would take no other advice than her
own, and would do everything herself."

The storms in our parliament do not necessarily end in political
shipwrecks, whenever the head of the government is an Elizabeth. She,
indeed, sent down a prohibition to the house from all debate on the
subject. But when she discovered a spirit in the commons, and language
as bold as her own royal style, she knew how to revoke the exasperating
prohibition. She even charmed them by the manner; for the commons
returned her "prayers and thanks," and accompanied them with a subsidy.
Her majesty found by experience, that the present, like other passions,
was more easily calmed and quieted by following than resisting, observes
Sir Symonds D'Ewes.

The wisdom of Elizabeth, however, did not weaken her intrepidity. The
struggle was glorious for both parties; but how she escaped through the
storm which her mysterious conduct had at once raised and quelled, the
sweetness and the sharpness, the commendation and the reprimand of her
noble speech in closing the parliament, are told by Hume with the usual
felicity of his narrative.[93]

ANECDOTES OF PRINCE HENRY, THE SON OF JAMES I., WHEN A CHILD.

Prince Henry, the son of James I., whose premature death was lamented by
the people, as well as by poets and historians, unquestionably would
have proved an heroic and military character. Had he ascended the
throne, the whole face of our history might have been changed; the days
of Agincourt and Cressy had been revived, and Henry IX. had rivalled
Henry V. It is remarkable that Prince