their travel, then they prize them anew at an abated price. By law, they
ought to take between sun and sun; by abuse, they take by twilight and
in the night time, a time well chosen for malefactors. By law, they
ought not to take in the highways, (a place by her majesty's high
prerogative protected, and by statute by special words excepted;) by
abuse, they take in the highways. By law, they ought to show their
commission, etc. A number of other particulars there are," etc. Bacon's
Works, vol. iv. p. 305, 306.

Such were the abuses which Elizabeth would neither permit her
parliaments to meddle with, nor redress herself. I believe it will
readily be allowed, that this slight prerogative alone, which has passed
almost unobserved amidst other branches of so much greater importance,
was sufficient to extinguish all regular liberty. For what elector,
or member of parliament, or even juryman, durst oppose the will of the
court, while he lay under the lash of such an arbitrary prerogative?
For a further account of the grievous and incredible oppressions of
purveyors, see the Journals of the house of commons, vol. i. p. 190.
There is a story of a carter, which may be worth mentioning on this
occasion. "A carter had three times been at Windsor with his cart, to
carry away, upon summons of a remove, some part of the stuff of her
majesty's wardrobe; and when he had repaired thither once, twice, and
the third time, and that they of the wardrobe had told him the third
time, that the remove held not, the carter, slapping his hand on his
thigh, said, 'Now I see that the queen is a woman as well as my wife;'
which words being overheard by her majesty, who then stood at the
window, she said, 'What a villain is this?' and so sent him three angels
to stop his mouth." Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 155.]

[Footnote 32: NOTE FF, p. 274. This year, the nation suffered a great
loss, by the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state; a man
equally celebrated for his abilities and his integrity. He had passed
through many employments, had been very frugal in his expense, yet died
so poor, that his family was obliged to give him a private burial. He
left only one daughter, first married to Sir Philip Sidney, then to the
earl of Essex, favorite of Queen Elizabeth, and lastly to the earl of
Clanriearde of Ireland. The same year died Thomas Randolph, who had been
employed by the queen in several embassies to Scotland; as did also the
earl o