iversary of her coronation, she was seen, after long and
intimate discourse with him, to take a ring from her own finger, and to
put it upon his; and all the spectators concluded, that in this ceremony
she had given him a promise of marriage, and was even desirous of
signifying her intentions to all the world. St. Aldegonde, ambassador
from the states, despatched immediately a letter to his masters,
informing them of this great event; and the inhabitants of Antwerp, who,
as well as the other Flemings, regarded the queen as a kind of titular
divinity, testified their joy by bonfires and the discharge of their
great ordnance.[**]

* Digges, p. 357, 387, 388, 409, 426, 439. Rymer. xv. p.
793.

** Camden, p. 486. Thuan. lib. lxxiv.

A Puritan of Lincoln's Inn had written a passionate book, which he
entitled, "The Gulph in which England will be swallowed by the French
Marriage." He was apprehended and prosecuted by order of the queen,
and was condemned to lose his right hand as a libeller. Such was the
constancy and loyalty of the man, that immediately after the sentence
was executed, he took off his hat with his other hand, and waving it
over his head, cried, God save the queen.

But notwithstanding this attachment which Elizabeth so openly discovered
to the duke of Anjou, the combat of her sentiments was not entirely
over; and her ambition, as well as prudence, rousing itself by
intervals, still filled her breast with doubt and hesitation. Almost
all the courtiers whom she trusted and favored--Leicester, Hatton, and
Walsingham--discovered an extreme aversion to the marriage; and the
ladies of her bed-chamber made no scruple of opposing her resolution
with the most zealous remonstrances.[*]

* Camden, p. 486.

Among other enemies to the match, Sir Philip, son of Sir Henry Sidney,
deputy of Ireland, and nephew to Leicester, a young man the most
accomplished of the age, declared himself: and he used the freedom
to write her a letter, in which he dissuaded her from her present
resolution, with an unusual elegance of expression, as well as force
of reasoning. He told her, that the security of her government depended
entirely on the affections of her Protestant subjects; and she could
not, by any measure, more effectually disgust them, than by espousing a
prince who was son of the perfidious Catharine, brother to the cruel and
perfidious Charles, and who had himself imbrued his hands in the blood
of t