his cackling, ready and smooth tongue,
wherein he giveth place to none, as for his deep and subtle
art in hiding his serpentine eggs from common men's sight:
chiefly for his hennish heart and courage, which twice
already hath been well proved to be as base and deject at
the sight of any storm of adverse fortune, as ever was hen's
heart at the sight of a fox. And, had he not been by his
confederate, as with a dunghill cock, trodden as it were and
gotten with egg, I doubt whether ever his hennish heart,
joined to his shrewd wit, would have served him, so soon to
put the Q.'s green and tender state in so manifest peril and
adventure. Fol. 88, rect.

"_Libellous Characters of Cecil and N. Bacon._

"Let the houses and possessions of these two Catalines be
considered, let their furniture, and building, let their
daily purchases, and ready hability to purchase still, let
their offices and functions wherein they sit, let their
titles, and styles claimed and used, let their places in
council, let their authority over the nobility, let their
linking in alliance with the same, let their access to the
prince, let their power and credit with her: let this their
present state, I say, in all points (being open and unknown
to no men) be compared with their base parentage and
progeny, (the one raised out of the robes, and the other
from a _Sheeprive's_ son) and let that give sentence as well
of the great difference of the tastes, that the several
fruits gathered of this tree by your Q., and by them do
yield, as whether any man at this day approach near unto
them in any condition wherein advancement consisteth. Yea,
mark you the jollity and pride that in this prosperity they
shew; the port and countenance that every way they carry; in
comparison of them that be noble by birth. Behold at whose
doors your nobility attendeth. Consider in whose chambers
your council must sit, and to whom for resolutions they must
resort; and let these things determine both what was the
purpose indeed, and hidden intention of that change of
religion, and who hath gathered the benefits of that
mutation: that is to say, whether for your Q., for your
realms, or for their own sakes, the same at first was taken
in hand, and since pursued as you have seen. For accordin