ry's conspiracy; and contributed, no doubt, to render the proceedings
against her the more rigorous. How far all these imputations against
Elizabeth can be credited, may perhaps appear doubtful; but her extreme
fondness for Leicester, Hatton, and Essex, not to mention Mountjoy
and others, with the curious passages between her and Admiral Seymour,
contained in Haynes, render her chastity very much to be suspected.
Her self-conceit with regard to beauty, we know from other undoubted
authority to have been extravagant. Even when she was a very old woman,
she allowed her courtiers to flatter her with regard to her "excellent
beauties." Birch, vol. ii. p. 442, 443. Her passionate temper may also
be proved from many lively instances; and it was not unusual with her to
beat her maids of honor. See the Sidney Papers, vol. ii. p. 38. The blow
she gave to Essex before the privy council is another instance. There
remains in the Museum a letter of the earl of Huntingdon's, in which he
complains grievously of the queen's pinching his wife very sorely, on
account of some quarrel between them. Had this princess been born in a
private station, she would not have been very amiable; but her absolute
authority, at the same time that it gave an uncontrolling swing to her
violent passions, enabled her to compensate her infirmities by many
great and signal virtues.]

[Footnote 21: NOTE U, p. 226. Camden, p. 525. This evidence was that of
Curie, her secretary, whom she allowed to be a very honest man; and who,
as well as Nau, had given proofs of his integrity, by keeping so long
such important secrets, from whose discovery he could have reaped the
greatest profit. Mary, after all, thought that she had so little reason
to complain of Curie's evidence, that she took care to have him paid a
considerable sum by her will, which she wrote the day before her
death. Goodall, vol. i. p. 413. Neither did she forget Nau, though less
satisfied in other respects with his conduct. Id. ibid.]

[Footnote 24: NOTE X, p. 226. The detail of this conspiracy is to be
found in a letter of the queen of Scots to Charles Paget, her great
confidant. This letter is dated the 20th of May, 1586, and is contained
in Dr. Forbes's manuscript collections, at present in the possession
of Lord Royston. It is a copy attested by Curie, Mary's secretary, and
endorsed by Lord Burleigh. What proves its authenticity beyond question
is, that we find in Murden's Collection, (p. 51